KA-I

Livestock is a category of human. *

The farm Hopeful Pig began in the wake of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. After the tsunami, five mother pigs were found alive, huddled together inside a collapsed feed silo. They had survived on the leftover feed inside, and their life continues to today.

On the farm stands a derelict livestock shed, long unused before Hopeful Pig arrived. This shed once housed pregnant and farrowing stalls — narrow metal pens where female pigs were kept for breeding, spending most of their lives in confinement. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of identical cold steel stalls were arranged in rows, with just enough space between them for a single pig or person to pass. These structures were designed solely for the efficient management of animals by humans, without any regard for the pigs’ natural behaviour. Their design bears a haunting resemblance to factories, detention centres or prisons used to control and exploit certain categories of people deemed “animal-like” or sub-human.

While dismantling these inherited structures, Hopeful Pig continues to explore new ways of farming. In a time when primary industries are in decline, the farm repurposes the ruins of industrial agriculture to pursue animal welfare, weaving together the lives of endangered species and, in doing so, offers a vision of what lies ahead.

Nozomi Takahashi, the pig farmer behind the project, told us: "I want to create a place of animal welfare for human beings." As we look upon the animals, we begin to feel ourselves — our bodies and minds — unwinding, softened by their presence. We recognise ourselves in them: as animals, and through animals.

KA-I is an encounter with the many possible meanings contained in these phonemes: disentangle and pleasure (解／快), sea and ash (海／灰), care and keeping (介／飼)... A moment of convergence between tenderness(懐) and the unknown(X).

MES

・Title: KA-I

・Production year: 2025

・Medium: Feeding silos, displays, water circulation devise

・Dimension variable