Memento mori vivos voco

Poaching is the theme of my new art project. I grew up in Africa, nature is not only part of my artistic work, I feel blessed to be in the wild. Only: which wild? One poached to death?

MISSION STATEMENT: "MEMENTO MORI VIVOS VOCO"

"I remember the dead, but it is the living whom I call." - With my artistic project "Poaching and Resurrection" I follow not only the dictum from the mission statement but also the ancient motto "vita brevis ars longa". Life may be fleeting, but in art we outlast. It is not only art that lasts longer than life. Even mortal remains such as the skulls and bones of poached animals last longer the more they dry out and petrify, before they finally fall into dust to close the eternal circle of life and death. I associate this one paradox with another one: from the ugly grimace of poaching, the rotting carcass, nature lets grow new beauties out of the bones in the form of structures and textures of the most beautiful kind.

THE WORK

I focus on the aesthetics of the transient, which is only possible because it is based on organic life, and in my pictures I recall the life of poached animals. I shoot them with my camera a second time in death and bring them back to life. We remember them, an image emerges in the eye of the viewer and triggers a process: remember, preserve, prevent. From the memory of the poached animal, the animal is preserved, but because it is threatened, the viewer wants to prevent senseless poaching in the future.

MY CONTRIBUTION

Art can explain, it can elucidate. Art can be spread and change people's consciousness, especially in the age of social networks. And art is bought. Part of the sales proceeds is donated to protect the animals from poaching.

Lukas Tonetto