PRODUCTIONS: PRIVATE PROPERTY

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Carlo & Lodovico Prola

Ditta Prola

26'

SD

Have you ever tried to get close to a herd of African elephants? Well, it sure doesn’t happen every day, but whoever’s had the courage to do so must have soon realized that the leader of the herd exhibits total indifference until a certain line is crossed. As we get closer to the happy family we reach a point where the large pachyderm loses his patience and starts trumpeting and exhibiting a very aggressive attitude. We have crossed the line of acceptable distance
Moreover, it’s important to know that for many animal species there is also an inviolable “personal space”. Proxemics is a science that was born in the 1960’s and which studies the ways in which humans and animals deal with their personal space and the distance they keep from others, a distance which of course varies from species to species. This distance usually depends on size: among flamingos, for example, it is around 60 cm, twice the distance enjoyed by seagulls and four times that of swallows. The criterion is a simple one: even when surrounded by family, it’s always safe to keep out of pecking range!
Many animals defend an area of their habitat which they perceive as their own property. A territory can be occupied by one single animal which defends it from the presence of its own kind, or it can belong to a group which will defend the territory from individuals of the same species who don’t belong to the group. The territory can be defined as a space in which one animal or group of animals dominates another. Or the territory is simply “a defended area”.