Known for his multifaceted practice spanning sculpture, installation, painting, and drawing, Kasper Bosmans’ works are intricate compositions filled with references to high art, literature, folklore, mythology, heraldry, and anthropology, approached through a playful and queer lens. He gathers anecdotes and stories from diverse cultures, translating idiosyncratic practices and rituals into contemporary narratives that draw attention to mythological remnants in modern life and his latest project explores the shifting roles of animals in human society.

The work, a new 30-metre mural, loosely investigates the history and development of the animal-human gaze in the shape of a procession or enfilade. Horses, teddy bears, hedgehogs, dissected frogs, and feline eyes populate scenes ranging from household spaces to circus arenas, revealing animals as companions, entertainers, and commodities shaped by human utility and desire. Evocative and rebus-like, they reveal minute zoological details and fragments of regional lore, layering local specificity with universal resonance. Not unlike the Ionian embroideries from the Benaki Museum, they capture the intricacy of a shared history – each detail sharpening the viewer’s gaze, anchoring them in the mural’s labyrinth of meanings. Heraldic stylizations and references to caparisons – ornamental horse coverings – highlight Europe’s historical commodification of animals. The glazed eyes and boredom of creatures confined to artificial environments like farms, zoos, and circuses underscore this theme.

As Bosmans reflects: “Animals once looked at us with indifference, as fellow beings without shared language or hierarchy. This lack of a shared vocabulary and understanding was imbued with mystery, but as humans settled in villages and cities, we severed symbiotic ties, domesticating animals for labour, display, and companionship, the mystery started to fade together with the intricately indifferent gaze we used to receive. It was replaced by something else, (or perhaps nothing, a massive void) in our increasingly utilitarian family-run cities. The fuzzy gaze and passive glances started to be cast through glass and meshes, behind bars, fences and circus rings. We pretended animals didn’t have a soul that could be stolen but took it from them nonetheless.” Bosmans’ mural invites viewers to examine the shifting roles animals have occupied in the human world over time within a richly layered visual narrative of human-animal relationships.

The Fuzzy Gaze was commissioned by EMΣT and is a prologue to the major, forthcoming exhibition  Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives, curated by Katerina Gregos.