The X201m Sound Project is based on the diary, Diaries of Despair, describing the last 39 days in the life of baboon X201m. X201m was in a guinea pig fashion, subjected to a pig-to-human xenotransplantation. A pig’s heart was transplanted into its neck.
The diary was smuggled out to the public in May 2000 and shown to the press by the British animal rights activist organization “Uncaged Campaigns”. The documents revealed in a dramatic way the baboon’s daily rythm in the last days of its life, until it died from its sufferings.
The project opens with a sound project by the Danish artist Mikael Madsen. Released at SpLab / The Jutland Art Academy, Denmark.
It is an interpretation of day one in the diary. This is also the inauguration of a comprehensive dialogue: 38 artists have been invited to participate and give their interpretations of the baboon’s last days in the form of sound projects.
X201m Sound Project webpage – Exhibited at SpLab – Special Laboratorium for kunst og offentlighed – Det Jyske Kunstakademi 2006