Sometimes you just have to take a step back and shake your head at what some people consider “art”.

Laval-Jeantet and her artistic partner Benoit Mangin are artists who came up with a conceptual piece with the purpose of exploring the boundaries between species. With a title called “May the Horse Live in Me”, Laval-Jeantet allowed herself to be injected with horse blood plasma for which she had prepared her body to accept. The preparation included injecting herself with animal antibodies in order to build up tolerance.

For the performance act, she also wore stilts with hooves on the bottom  to help her feel “at one” with the horse that she had on the stage.

As part of the performance piece she also wore a set of stilts with hooves on the end to feel at one with the horse. She also walked around with donor horse in a “communication ritual” before having her hybrid blood extracted and freeze-dried.

She explained to Centre Press that whole process made her feel “hyper-powerful, hyper-sensitive and hyper-nervous”. She added: “I had a feeling of being superhuman. I was not normal in my body. I had all of the emotions of a herbivore. I couldn’t sleep and I felt a little bit like a horse.”

Next up, GhostTheory editors eat dog food for a month to feel “at one” with their canine pets. Well, that and the fact that we’re in a recession so I have to start preparing my body to digest purina dog chow.

Full source: Wired UK

Laval-Jeantet and her creative partner Benoit Mangin (working as collective Art Orienté Objet) were keen to explore the blurring of boundaries between species in the piece, entitled May the Horse Live in Me. Laval-Jeantet prepared her body to accept the horse blood plasma by getting injected with different horse immuniglobulins over the course of several months.

These foreign animal antibodies were injected in progressively larger amounts to allow her to build up tolerance in a process that she referred to as “mithridatisation”, after the Persian king of Pontus, Mithridates VI, who supposedly built up an immunity to poison by regularly consuming small doses of it.

Earlier this year, after months of preparation, she was injected with horse blood plasma, which contained the full spectrum of immunoglobulins without provoking an allergic reaction.

As part of the performance piece she also wore a set of stilts with hooves on the end to feel at one with the horse. She also walked around with donor horse in a “communication ritual” before having her hybrid blood extracted and freeze-dried.

She explained to Centre Press that whole process made her feel “hyper-powerful, hyper-sensitive and hyper-nervous”. She added: “I had a feeling of being superhuman. I was not normal in my body. I had all of the emotions of a herbivore. I couldn’t sleep and I felt a little bit like a horse.”

Art Orienté Objet have a long history of working in the bioart space, having created other pieces including Skin Culture, which uses bioengineered skin as a canvas for animal-shaped tattoos.