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Dear Madam, Dear
Sir,
One day, about
37 years ago, leaving
the Tours Art Museum, I walked into a room where I noticed a life-size
elephant, a real, dead one which has been naturalized.
What
a coincidence, a few hours later I heard that they are in way of
extermination, may be worse, in way of disappearance, how sad it
is !
I was so much haunted with the sight of this animal
so that I saw it appearing in most shops as a common, functional,
decorative object, its animal shape had been misrepresented
and was given a commercial one : that beats all ! it was may be
a premonitory sign of their extinct.
Am I doing anything
to save them ? Whenever I see an elephant-object in a shop I buy
it, so I feel as if I have saved the one which has just been killed,
and for the last 37 years I have gathered a real herd of 1050 lifeless
elephants.
Working as a warden at the Nantes Art Museum
and living in an artistic world, I woulk like painters, sculptors,
plastic artists to be concerned and be ready to take action for
elephants, being a creator it would be great if you could give life
to one of these elephants-objects of the herd dedicating a work
of art as soon as you receive this letter, work that you dedicate
to elephants (for me artists have always been life and hope symbols
thanks to their creative force).
This is not an order-form
on a special subject, but if you feel concerned about it, touched
by it, if you grant them a generous thought and if you find this
project attractive, award your work to them. The main thing is that
your creation can be kept as a mark of symbolic representation of
your thought for a natural reason : save one of the oldest pachyderms
in the world and at the same time all animals threatened as well
as our environment, in fact our own survival.
Each lifeless
elephant is numbered by chronological order and if you a accept
this offer, the work dedicated to them will be given a number and
will correspond to an elephant'number and so on until all the elephants
are saved, when the latest artist, thanks to his dedicated work,
has symbolically given life to the latest elephant-object of the
herd.
This is an ambitious project, which has to be on
level with the danger that threats our animal and vegetable world.
One day there will be all over the world, I hope very much
it will, one thousand works dedicated to the elephants which will
make the public opinion aware of their cruel disappearance and so
1025 elephants will have been saved for ever thanks to 1025 generous
thoughts of artist-creators.
If you agree, first of all
you can write "yes" or "no" on a bit of paper.
Afterwards, when you dedicate your work to elephants send me a photograph
I will join to one the herd, your work will give it life.
This will help me to build up a file for each artist-work done to
save elephants. This file, I will present it to Department Stores,
Firms, using elephants as emblems (Mammouth, Côte d'or Chocolate,
Tea Elephant, Dumbo, Babar etc...) with them I hope to set up an
exhibition of all works dedicated to elephants.
Of course these
works will be insured, protected and given the best care. First
of all, an all works catalogue will be realized.
I do not
want to urge you, but time is running out for them. Ideally I would
like to present this exhibition as soon as possible, it would be
wonderful !
The special interest of this exhibition will
be to show the diverse tendencies of art at the end of this century,
and it would be important to know that each artist has symbolically
given life to an elephant.
Your work once exposed will continue it's path and
will remain your property or that of a buyer's.
The best thing is that the work
could be seen daily so it could perpetuate this story with the passing
of years.
Each time that the work is exhibited hereafter
a small elephant sticker could be attached to the card describing
the work in order to remind us all of this story.
This
one for example if you agree : 
If you feel concerned, please answer this letter as soon as possible.
Thank you very much for them
See you later
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