GIRAFA LAVOISIER
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The “Lavoisier Giraffe”, made from 5200 rubber slippers taken from the Indian Ocean and 156 kilos of waste collected in landfills, is 5.6 meters high. The representation of this giraffe alerts, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, to its threat as an endangered species.
The title of the sculpture, alluding to the contributions of the French scientist Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, pays homage to his avant-garde thinking and his discoveries in the fields of chemistry and biology. Also known for mentioning that “in Nature, nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed”, Lavoisier refers, indirectly and in a context adapted to contemporaneity, to the impact that the human being has been exerting on the planet.
The “Lavoisier Giraffe” produced by Ocean Sole, a Kenya-based NGO, in partnership with United to Remake, a start-up installed in the Taguspark Incubator, was sculpted by the hands of five artisans, who daily and without recourse to any machines, collect slippers discarded in the ocean and give them a new purpose.
The sculpture, true to the anatomy of a giraffe, took 99 days to take shape. It is a unique, life-size artistic piece, and the largest ever made by the NGO’s artisans. Considered the largest ruminant and the tallest mammal on Earth, the giraffe, like the recent sculptural depiction at Taguspark, has a particular impact on the public due to its size and mosaic-like pattern.