Pigeon Paradise

In November 2020, a new world record was set in the world of pigeon racing. New Kim, a Belgian pigeon, was purchased at auction for $1.9 million by a wealthy Chinese man at PIPA (Pigeon Paradise).

This first photograph sparked the author’s imagination, which he wanted to contrast with a little-known practice that developed in the early twentieth century in the mining regions of Belgium and France.

Pigeon Paradise invites us to reflect on the evolution of a popular game that has become an international and lucrative business in recent decades, infiltrating the most modest amateur clubs and bringing together businessmen who have left their professions to devote themselves entirely to their sporting animals.

This project thus questions the evolution of a practice and takes this observation as evidence of the evolution of our relationship with (wild) animals. Lucas reveals a milieu and a sport through an approach based on our ability to connect with living beings through the game itself and the excessive sums that our species can attribute to another being.