Now it's about the sausage! That's what the tiger thought when, for the first time in his life, he saw the meat packed into such small shiny packets. Odor-proof and sterile. He wouldn’t have been able to tell whether it contained pork neck, venison breast or a juicy piece of antelope, if the saleswoman had not shown him the animal symbols on the package. The lady could not say how many animals had found a place in this refrigerator, or where they had come from. Also to the man, who was eating lunch at the meat counter it didn’t really matter, how the sausage came onto his plate. But the tiger knew these animals, with four legs, two ears and a tail, and he was a passionate carnivore. He decided to set off to find the animals that would later become these schnitzels.

Meat and other animal products are present every day in all our meals, but not everyone would appreciate a Sunday visit in a slaughterhouse. We find animals cute, but the stench in the steel is rather uncomfortable. That the schnitzel was an animal is not anymore obvious to everyone. Even more tragic is the fact that the meat is so cheap that we throw it away without hesitation if we do not eat it. 

Meat is valuable to us, because it means the life of an animal. We want to learn more about the history of our food and to see where the animals to which we owe our food live. With our self-bound sketchbooks, we visit various farms around Berlin, inform ourselves about how milk and meat are produced, and draw, ask, taste and cook delicious recipes. As a final product, we want to design a book in which we summarize our image and text research. The book will have the character of a diary documenting the journey of the tiger to the outskirts of Berlin as he visits the places where animals live, complemented by our delicious recipes.

In cooperation with the MIK - Jugendkunstschule Mitte and the Humboldthain Elementary School

Funded by Projekt Jugend ins Zentrum! der Bundesvereinigung Soziokultureller Zentren im Rahmen des Programms Kultur macht stark. Bündnisse für Bildung des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung.

Tuna Arkun, born in Istanbul, is a visual artist. Since 2007 he works in different projects as a concept developer and instructor of creative activities for children, youth and adults.

Heather Purcell, born in Glasgow in 1986, studied at the Glasgow School of Art (BA) and the Berlin Univeristät der Künste (MA). She works as an artist and freelance art teacher and runs animation and video workshops. Her work focuses on the combination of analog and digital media.