What does it mean to be a small animal breeder?
The term "small animal" has changed in recent decades: While today it is usually equated with "pet", i.e. animals that have no utility value and can in principle be kept in a rented apartment, a few decades ago it was still the term for farm animals that were smaller than horses, cattle and pigs and could also be kept by non-farmers, i.e. animals ranging from pigeons and rabbits to goats and sheep.
The spirit of the old definition of small animals still blows through the small animal shows in the villages of the Oderbruch: we don't see guinea pigs, tarantulas and canaries, but chickens, rabbits and pigeons. Breeders stand next to their cages and present the results of their often decades-long breeding efforts. How do humans and animals shape each other in these relationships? What does the animal tell us about the breeder and the breeder about the animal? What role does the landscape and its history play in the choice of animals bred and in the selection of their characteristics? What is the relationship between character, (pre)love, beauty, tradition and utility?
Photographer and cameraman René Arnold got to the bottom of these questions in conversations with small animal breeders in the Oderbruch region. The result is a series of large-format individual portraits of breeders and a short film in which the animals being talked about are observed in carefully composed shots.
The exhibition is designed as a traveling exhibition. If you are interested, please call the program management of the Oderbruch Museum.
