Stemvee

In the cow shed of the old farmhouse in Baard, nine cows once stood, milked several times a day. The production and consumption of milk, butter, and cheese has a long tradition in the Netherlands. The dairy industry still makes a significant contribution to the economy. During the exhibition, the stable is empty. Instead of animals, there are nine milk churns from which milk continuously flows over the edge. The sound of the cascading white liquid is almost soothing, but also inescapable. Yet the voice of the animal can still be heard in the cow shed. From the adjacent "Hooitas", the former hay barn, the lowing of cows echoes through old speakers. The sound travels into the stable, like an echo of what once was.

Stemvee makes the tension between the animal and what it produces for humans tangible. Instead of showing the cow, the work shows what she yields—endlessly, almost mechanically. In this way, the cow is detached from her function as a tool of production: not a milk machine, but an animal with a voice. Now that the climate impact of meat and dairy consumption is becoming increasingly clear, the question grows: can we see the cow as an animal again, rather than as a means of production?