What is the role of an artist?
You may think, like the vast majority of people,
that an artist's role is to deliver a message.
When Picasso was asked,
"Master, what is your message?"
he would answser, "What message? I am not a mailman!"
An artist is there to ask questions,
to himself first,
and then to the public
so that they seize upon them and ask themselves in turn.
From the question is born the thought that will lead to action.
The Anthropocene - as Gilles told you earlier -
is the nice name that many meteorologists and geologists
give to the current period in our planet's history.
Anthropocene is a neologism built from two Greek words:
"anthropos," human being, and "kainos," new,
in reference to that new period
in which human activity has become the major geologic constraint.
Today, it is men who alter the environment and alter the planet,
in a very dangerous way.
I am just completing...
But "Where danger lies also grows that which saves."
This famous sentence of the poet Friedrich Hölderlin
has never been more relevant.
The extraordinary technological advances
which have enabled the overexploitation of our natural resources,
this human genius can be put,
in my opinion, as a counterpart,
to the service of redemption and repair.
All of us can act,
not just engineers, scientists and technicians ...
No, all of us, you ladies and you gentlemen, and me ...
But to do so, we must resist.
We must resist the depressive atmosphere
and resist fatalism.
To resist is to fight the gregarious instinct that is in each of us.
By which, I mean "consumption."
Don't worry, I am not going to tell you,
"We must all ride bicycles, use candles, or live under teepees!"
No.
Seriously, I think that we can, as often as possible,
ponder and weigh up
the real consequences of each purchase we make,
such as for example, buying a bigger flat-screen TV,
a more powerful computer,
a more comfortable car
or even just a new clothe.
I act as a citizen, but I also act as an artist.
Today, I want to use my expertise to raise awareness.
The overexploitation of natural resources has resulted, among other things,
in the extinction of a large number of animal species.
In just 42 years, we have lost 58% of the planetary wildlife.
38% of which are terrestrial vertebrates,
because there are also fish, birds, etc.
It just so happens that animals are my business.
My animal paintings are sold in numerous galleries around the world -
they sell very well -
and I could go on making a very comfortable living of this work
without questioning myself.
But I've decided to get involved and to act.
If an artist cannot act directly
on the causes of this extinction, on the causes of this decline,
he can nevertheless try through the power of his art,
and as far as possible,
to convince and rally as many people as possible
to support those who fight for the preservation of biodiversity,
through donations aimed to fund
programs that protect wildlife and which are very costly.
Let me remind you that Barack Obama's first campaign
for the 2008 presidential elections,
was widely funded by $5 to $30 donations.
This year, in partnership with Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation,
we have presented our first campaign "Delete ?"
"Delete ?" is a series of artworks I created to alert urban populations
to the threat to a large number of species.
So, what should I paint to rally,
to convince,
to seduce people?
During our earliest meetings with the Foundation, in 2015,
we discussed a lot about that.
Scientists think - and I assume they're right about it -
that the loss of the amphibians is far more harmful for humanity
than that of the elephants.
But I wanted to paint elephants.
Then I remembered a story that had stuck with me.
Do you know who created this?
His name was Raymond Loewy.
He is the father of industrial design.
He is also credited for the logo design of LU biscuits,
the Lucky Strike's packaging, Studbaker and many Coca-Cola products,
in short, many world-famous visuals.
Raymond Loewy, as a young designer in the 1940s and 1950s,
would go to industrial fairs to seek out new customers,
and tell the manufacturers at their stands,
" Your product is excellent. It works really well. It's very effective ...
But, boy! It's so ugly!
If it were beautiful, you would sell many more.
And I can make it beautiful! "
And this has been his life-long motto: "Beauty sells!"
To sell an idea, it's not enough that she be beautiful
philanthropically or philosophically,
it also has to be beautiful aesthetically, artistically and in its modeling,
because the image is the first thing that seizes you in the public space.
It's the image that will convince you to want to know more about it.
Long before any sound or anything else, the picture does it.
So, I managed to convince my partners to go straight to the point
and show large and beautiful mammals,
such as the Panthera Tigris Altaïca.
Panthera Tigris Altaïca,
is the taxonomic name of the Siberian tiger,
also known as the Amur Tiger.
It is the most powerful of all the tiger subspecies.
It is also the third largest predator on Earth
behind the Kodiak bear and the polar bear.
Males can weigh up to 350-400 kg
and measure up to 3.80 m from head to tail.
The Siberian tiger
lives in the northeast of China and in Eastern Siberia,
along the Amur River - hence its name -
which is the natural boundary between this two big countries.
It lives on a huge territory
that is also a very geopolitically strategic location.
Indeed, it is where the biggest oil pipeline in the world runs,
the ESPO pipeline.
The ESPO pipeline goes from Eastern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean
and runs for over 4,000 km.
In 2020, it will deliver more than 80 million tons of crude oil
to China, Japan and Korea,
for an annual sum of $125 billion.
The stakes are colossal.
The construction of ESPO required some deforestation,
which resulted in a partial reduction of the tiger's habitat.
But it also opened new roads that facilitate access for poachers.
A Siberian tiger's skin is worth 10,000 € on the black market.
Now, protection programs are costly.
You have to pay people to watch over the tigers, fight against poachers.
It really requires funds.
The sums invested are significant -
Prince Albert II Foundation is participating
as well as other organizations -
but the results are rewarding.
It can be done.
In the middle of the 1990s,
there were only around 30 Siberian tigers left.
Today, they number around 500.
perhaps a bit more, as we suspect there are some in North Korea,
but going there to count them is difficult.
So, programs are rewarding.
It allowed the IUCN -
the International Union for the Conservation of Nature,
to downgrade the Siberian tiger
from its famous Red List of endangered species,
from "Critically endangered" to simply "endangered."
Now, to return to my introduction,
an artist is there to ask questions.
My question is "Delete ?"
which is in French "Supprimer."
"Delete ?" is a universally known IT pictogram.
It is the usual way to erase a file from a computer.
I adapted this common pictogram
to a tangible and tragic reality,
that is the extinction and the threat to a large number of species,
by showing on large tarps hung in the streets,
or by nocturnal projections,
mammals and animals that are disappearing
in a very theatrical way.
During the creation of these paintings in my workshop,
I photographed the work in progress almost frame by frame.
This enabled us to obtain high definition pictures
that could then be printed on these large tarps,
and then
when looking at these images
from the last one where the canvas is finished,
to the first one in reverse order up to the empty background,
we can see the animal slowly disappearing.
So, we've created short videos
which were shown for the first time during all the summer at night,
on the ramparts of the princely palace.
Passers-by could watch live the disappearance of big mammals.
"Delete ?" engages our reptilian brain.
When we see the pictogram appear,
we sense our index finger ready to click
but, at the same time, we feel a compelling need to resist ...
(Applause)