“In this so-called 'art exhibition’, butterflies are forced to exist in the artificial environment of a closed room for their entire lives. There would be national outcry if the exhibition involved any other animal, such as a dog. Just because it is butterflies, that does not mean they do not deserve to be treated with kindness.” -RSPCA representative.

Damien Hirst, butterfly killer?

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In 2003, the artist became the biggest importer of exotic butterflies in the UK. His dried butterfly wings are purchased in bulk from farms in the tropics, where a thriving industry had been established to curb the illegal butterfly trade that has destroyed many ecosystems around the world.

The Department of Artificial Butterflies (DoAB) is a part of a larger project that aims to create a Museum of UnNatural History. The Museum will advance its global mission to discover, interpert, and disseminate information about human contemporary cultures, the natural world as we reproduce it and ecology through a wide-ranging program of scientific research, education, and exhibition.

The DoAB aims to research animal issues in contemporary art in relation to John Berger's text "Why look at animals" which examines some of the most important concepts in social theory and philosophy such as the action of the gaze, the relationships between humans and animals in society as well as the objectification of the animal and the distancing of the human from the animal.

Soon vol.1 the butterfly handbok

"Let's see if we can get a new entomologist, because the effort of the entomological museum is to give children and people the stimulus to deal with them.
Which is the most numerous group in the animal kingdom. We need new entomologists to study the Greek wildlife."
Entomologist
Anastasios Koutrumbas

Butterfly Mounting