05/09/2021
with
・・・
Conservation is different here.
Animals are fed - or at least, there is food - and an irrigation system pumps water from the ground, 35km below. There is some incredible vegetation; trees with roots that can reach up to twelve times their hight. Powerful adaptations to drastic conditions.
Yet what does it mean, that the animals are looked after? Is it another way for man to assert dominance over an ecosystem that is certainly untameable? Is it a way to rewild and bring back life that came into conflict with the literal application of the Genesis (« you will dominate the land,the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky and rule over every animal that roams the earth »)?
And yet; where does one draw the line between conservation practices? Managing a reserve, employing armed forces for protection, reintroducing species, building fences around properties however large - it’s still managing nature, or at least preventing its destruction.
The wild is a notion that we seek because it’s everything that we are not - or at least, in appearance. Humans have nothing except the intellect, perhaps the most potent weapon of all. We crave the wild, we crave nature, because the disconnection is generational and genetic. Yes, the wild is within, yes, nature is everywhere, but the rapport with these states is fractured. This is of course, not necessarily relevant to all societies. But I really hope that the series of lockdowns have generated a reflexion on how being in proximity with nature is an essential need for health - both of humans and of ecosystems.
Perhaps what has silenced me in the past few weeks, more than the various odyssean challenges that have found their way into my life once more, is the quiet despair that has been growing inside my mind. Sharing Beauty is paramount, and i believe a key to happiness and action, and will always be the core of my work. But when we lose people who were beacons of light in the fight for life, the deafening silence that comes with it is hard. Where do we go without a leader?