Abstract :
[en] A taxidermied animal is a repository of stories. As an object of memory, a trophy (the mounted head of an animal on a wall) or a "massacre" (french term for a skull accompanied by its horns or antlers) serves as the testimony of a successful hunt. The same animal, however, when placed in a natural history museum display, will become a reference point for our current or extinct biodiversity. At the same time, certain pets and famous animals, such as Knut the polar bear, born in 2006 at the Berlin Zoo, or Jojo, one of the chimpanzees from the animal park in Nancy, have had their bodies reconstituted and displayed after their death. In these cases, they no longer represent a species as a whole, but instead invite the public to reconnect with the uniqueness of a particular animal.
This presentation will explore the material and memorial dimensions of taxidermy as a complex practice situated at the intersection of life preservation and evocation of the past. As hybrid objects, taxidermied specimens oscillate between tangible materiality and symbolic aura, embodying both the presence of a once-living being and the irreversible passage of time. Drawing on historical and ethnographic examples from research with taxidermists, museums, and owners of taxidermied animals in French-speaking Belgium, this study examines how taxidermy, in its attempt to freeze the animal's body in time, contributes to the production of cultural and ecological nostalgia and longing (Poliquin 2012). It explores how these specimens are infused with meanings that reflect human attempts to capture the ephemeral, to recreate connections to the past or to natural environments undergoing profound transformations.
