Strange visitors

While walking the streets of London, one can notice curious elephant statues sitting in various positions and sporting different colours. I thought at first that it was an exhibition of some special kind and I really like the concept. It reminded me of the statues of Anthony Gormley in New York put up for the Event Horizon, previously talked about here. I, personally, cannot remember seeing a lot of these exhibitions showcased. I could recall La Terre vue du Ciel, a photography exhibition in Paris inspired by the eponymous book, about Yann Arthus-Bertrand's pictures taken from an helicopter all around the world.

However, these exhibitions do not match the sheer size of this one.  Indeed, 250 pachyderms, painted in unique colors and schemes by the same number of artists and designers, are scattered over various inner borough of London, sometimes sitting lonely, sometimes sitting in group.  It is not either an exhibition per se as these sculptures are being auctioned and the street is their showcase. The charity Elephant Family, created in 2002, is responsible for such an original initiative. It aims to protect as its name indicate elephants and more precisely the Asian variant, pointing that in 100 years its population decreased by 90% from 250000 to 25000 beasts. To do so, the foundation has been create a natural reserve for them and other “services” susceptible to help them in their task.

This public auction is not their first time as they did it already in 2007 in Rotterdam, 2008 in Antwerp, in 2009 in Amsterdam, this year in London and Emmen Bergen and next year Copenhagen. Given the amount of parades that happen in Netherland and around, but it appears that the main organisation is based in there. Nevertheless, wherever this charity is from is not really the important point. London's auction ends on the 4th of July. Prices start at around £5000 which is to me not that expensive, although right now working in an auction house does not really help to keep a decent vision of the world as it is an environment where prices are crazy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this concept as it makes people enjoy the city in which they are if they want to see these elephants. I liked the fact to randomly see these sculptures in the street and the discrepancy between their own nature as exotic animal painted in various schemes and colour and the urban environment; I found the concept really good. I also like the fact that it is a charity rather than a regular exhibition probably because as a charity it is always heart-warming to see such an innovative idea in the hand of a non-for-profit organisation. It seems to be a win-win situation for the charity as it does not need to rent some space in a museum to exhibit the statues and for the city it is a good PR campaign. I hope that in the future more of these will be possible, however not to the extent of becoming hype so that it does not lose its charm and here is the fine line not to cross.

-C