Nénette, who was born in Borneo, spent more than fifty years in the zoo located inside the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Children would point at her and ask, “Is Nénette the same as me?” “I can break this big glass, you know!” “Nénette came here in 1972.” “Nénette’s gotten smaller than before, hasn’t she?” Humans become excited by Nenette’s every tiny movement, though she can barely move anymore. At the entrance to the exhibit room, a sign reads, “Please be quiet for the animals.” Nénette has lived entirely to suit our purposes. Unable to stop recording, I stepped outside the exhibit room and ran into her keeper, who was locking Nénette’s cage. Many keys hung from her waist, and with their sound, she disappeared into the distance. Surely, she was also me.
The existence of animals and humans remains unchanged, yet time (and era) transforms the relationship between us. I created this work as a Human Archive Center series, documenting the relationship between Nénette and us in 2025.