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What is the role of an artist?

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You may think,
like the vast majority of people,

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that an artist's role
is to deliver a message.

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When Picasso was asked,

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"Master, what is your message?"

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he would answser, "What message?
I am not a mailman!"

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An artist is there to ask questions,

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to himself first,

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and then to the public

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so that they seize upon them
and ask themselves in turn.

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From the question is born
the thought that will lead to action.

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The Anthropocene -
as Gilles told you earlier -

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is the nice name that many
meteorologists and geologists

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give to the current period 
in our planet's history.

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Anthropocene is a neologism
built from two Greek words:

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"anthropos," human being,
and "kainos," new,

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in reference to that new period


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in which human activity has become
the major geologic constraint.

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Today, it is men who alter
the environment and alter the planet,

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in a very dangerous way.

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I am just completing...

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But "Where danger lies
also grows that which saves."

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This famous sentence
of the poet Friedrich Hölderlin

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has never been more relevant.

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The extraordinary technological advances

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which have enabled the overexploitation
of our natural resources,

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this human genius can be put,


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in my opinion, as a counterpart,


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to the service of redemption and repair.

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All of us can act,

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not just engineers,
scientists and technicians ...

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No, all of us, you ladies
and you gentlemen, and me ...

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But to do so, we must resist.

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We must resist the depressive atmosphere

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and resist fatalism.

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To resist is to fight the gregarious
instinct that is in each of us.

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By which, I mean "consumption."

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Don't worry,
I am not going to tell you,

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"We must all ride bicycles, use candles,
or live under teepees!"

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No.

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Seriously, I think that we can,
as often as possible,

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ponder and weigh up

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the real consequences
of each purchase we make,

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such as for example,
buying a bigger flat-screen TV,

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a more powerful computer,

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a more comfortable car

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or even just a new clothe.

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I act as a citizen,
but I also act as an artist.

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Today, I want to use my expertise
to raise awareness.

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The overexploitation of natural resources
has resulted, among other things,

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in the extinction of a large number
of animal species.

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In just 42 years, we have lost
58% of the planetary wildlife.

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38% of which are terrestrial vertebrates,

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because there are also fish, birds, etc.

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It just so happens
that animals are my business.

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My animal paintings are sold 
in numerous galleries around the world -

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they sell very well -

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and I could go on making
a very comfortable living of this work

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without questioning myself.

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But I've decided
to get involved and to act.

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If an artist cannot act directly


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on the causes of this extinction,
on the causes of this decline,

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he can nevertheless try
through the power of his art,

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and as far as possible,

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to convince and rally
as many people as possible

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to support those who fight
for the preservation of biodiversity,

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through donations aimed to fund


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programs that protect wildlife
and which are very costly.

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Let me remind you
that Barack Obama's first campaign

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for the 2008 presidential elections,

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was widely funded by $5 to $30 donations.

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This year, in partnership with 
Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation,

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we have presented
our first campaign "Delete ?"

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"Delete ?" is a series of artworks
I created to alert urban populations

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to the threat to a large
number of species.

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So, what should I paint to rally,

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to convince,

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to seduce people?

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During our earliest meetings
with the Foundation, in 2015,

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we discussed a lot about that.

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Scientists think - and I assume
they're right about it -

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that the loss of the amphibians
is far more harmful for humanity

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than that of the elephants.

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But I wanted to paint elephants.

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Then I remembered a story
that had stuck with me.

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Do you know who created this?

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His name was Raymond Loewy.

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He is the father of industrial design.

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He is also credited for the logo
design of LU biscuits,

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the Lucky Strike's packaging, Studbaker
and many Coca-Cola products,

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in short, many world-famous visuals.

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Raymond Loewy, as a young designer
in the 1940s and 1950s,

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would go to industrial fairs
to seek out new customers,

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and tell the manufacturers
at their stands,

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" Your product is excellent. It works
really well. It's very effective ...

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But, boy! It's so ugly!

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If it were beautiful,
you would sell many more.

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And I can make it beautiful! "

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And this has been his life-long
motto: "Beauty sells!"

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To sell an idea, it's not enough
that she be beautiful

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philanthropically or philosophically,

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it also has to be beautiful aesthetically,
artistically and in its modeling,

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because the image is the first thing
that seizes you in the public space.

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It's the image that will convince you
to want to know more about it.

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Long before any sound
or anything else, the picture does it.

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So, I managed to convince my partners
to go straight to the point

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and show large and beautiful mammals,

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such as the Panthera Tigris Altaïca.

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Panthera Tigris Altaïca,

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is the taxonomic name
of the Siberian tiger,

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also known as the Amur Tiger.

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It is the most powerful
of all the tiger subspecies.

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It is also the third largest
predator on Earth

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behind the Kodiak bear and the polar bear.

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Males can weigh up to 350-400 kg


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and measure up to 3.80 m
from head to tail.

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The Siberian tiger

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lives in the northeast of China
and in Eastern Siberia,

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along the Amur River - hence its name -

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which is the natural boundary
between this two big countries.

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It lives on a huge territory

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that is also a very geopolitically
strategic location.

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Indeed, it is where the biggest
oil pipeline in the world runs,

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the ESPO pipeline.

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The ESPO pipeline goes from Eastern
Siberia to the Pacific Ocean

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and runs for over 4,000 km.

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In 2020, it will deliver more
than 80 million tons of crude oil

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to China, Japan and Korea,

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for an annual sum of $125 billion.

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The stakes are colossal.

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The construction of ESPO
required some deforestation,

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which resulted in a partial reduction
of the tiger's habitat.

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But it also opened new roads
that facilitate access for poachers.

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A Siberian tiger's skin is worth
10,000 € on the black market.

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Now, protection programs are costly.

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You have to pay people to watch
over the tigers, fight against poachers.

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It really requires funds.

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The sums invested are significant -

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Prince Albert II Foundation
is participating

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as well as other organizations -

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but the results are rewarding.

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It can be done.

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In the middle of the 1990s,

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there were only around
30 Siberian tigers left.

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Today, they number around 500.

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perhaps a bit more, as we suspect
there are some in North Korea,

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but going there
to count them is difficult.

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So, programs are rewarding.

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It allowed the IUCN -

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the International Union
for the Conservation of Nature,

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to downgrade the Siberian tiger

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from its famous Red List
of endangered species,

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from "Critically endangered"
to simply "endangered."

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Now, to return to my introduction,

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an artist is there to ask questions.

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My question is "Delete ?"

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which is in French "Supprimer."

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"Delete ?" is a universally
known IT pictogram.

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It is the usual way to erase
a file from a computer.

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I adapted this common pictogram


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to a tangible and tragic reality,

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that is the extinction and the threat
to a large number of species,

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by showing on large tarps
hung in the streets,

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or by nocturnal projections,


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mammals and animals
that are disappearing

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in a very theatrical way.

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During the creation of these
paintings in my workshop,

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I photographed the work in progress
almost frame by frame.

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This enabled us to obtain
high definition pictures

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that could then be printed
on these large tarps,

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and then

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when looking at these images

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from the last one
where the canvas is finished,

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to the first one in reverse order
up to the empty background,

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we can see the animal slowly disappearing.

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So, we've created short videos

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which were shown for the first time
during all the summer at night,

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on the ramparts of the princely palace.

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Passers-by could watch live
the disappearance of big mammals.

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"Delete ?" engages our reptilian brain.

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When we see the pictogram appear,

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we sense our index finger ready to click

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but, at the same time,
we feel a compelling need to resist ...

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(Applause)