Taxidermy and the blurring boundaries between animate and inanimate, animal and object

Taxidermy is the art of preparing, stuffing and mounting an animal skin to preserve it and give it a livelike appearance. The study of this practice and the ways collectors, artists or hunters use it reveale how they operate material arrangements and ontological negociations with these animal-objects, facing the blurring of boundaries between what is perceived as animate and/or inanimate, animal and/or object.
Through a few brief exemples based on my fieldwork, I will explain how this anthropological approach of taxidermy takes us to the heart of these tensions, these redefinitions and these questions about living beings and the ways of figuring it.
Whether it is removing the wood base of a fox bought at a flea market, refusing to "denature" a damaged specimen using synthetic glue to repair his ear, choosing the location of a seam to hide the impact of the ball, or preferring to buy a cardboard trophy for ethical reasons, all these small gestures imply a singular and continually renegotiated relationship between human beings, animal, nature and objects.