Francesc Candel
Tales of endurance.
Primate DNA is only five percent different from ours. Like us, they feel jealousy, envy, love, shame, grief, depression... They are very social beings, they are sensitive and each one has a different personality, according to the experts, as happens in humans. They develop tools for specific purposes, which involves reasoning, anticipating the future and acting with the tool. They adopt orphans, which demonstrates social bonds, empathy and altruism. They have self-awareness, cooperative problem-solving and learning by example and experience, so they have symbolic capacity and a culture of their own, which they pass on from one generation to the next. Chimpanzees even surpass humans in certain memory tasks. An ape at the age of two is able to do small sums and use tools, while a two year old does not even know how to do sums or reason the why of the tool. They give pets to their children and they even learn words in sign language, being able to establish a conversation with their caregiver. They are able to teach their offspring sign language so that they can communicate with their caregivers. And so on. And they share a very important trait with humans, a trait not found in any other animal... laughter.
This image is dedicated to Bobby. Bobby was a chimpanzee used for decades as a laboratory animal at the Coulston Foundation in Alamogordo, New Mexico. He was born in captivity and at a very young age participated in biomedical experiments. By the age of 19, he had been anaesthetised more than 250 times and biopsied as many times. His life was spent in solitude inside a tiny metal cage. His body was bruised and scarred. In a deeply depressed state, he was incessantly self-harming, a clear sign that he intended to end his life. In 2002 he was transferred to Save the Chimps, a chimpanzee sanctuary in Louisiana, USA. Dedicated to Jeannie. Jeannie was in the service of science for nine years. At the age of six, she began her career in the pharmaceutical laboratories of Merck, Sharpe and Dohme. Shortly afterwards she was donated to the Buckshire Corporation and ended up at LEMSIP, Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates in New York at the age of 22. During that time she participated in several invasive experimental protocols including repeated vaginal douching, multiple cervical, liver and lymph node biopsies. She was infected with HIV and hepatitis C, and participated in rhinovirus vaccination protocols. She was anaesthetised more than 200 times. She died at the age of 31 at the Fauna Foundation, Canada's only primate sanctuary. Dedicated to Newt. Newt was born in 1979 at LEMSIP. At the age of four months he was sold to the Southwest National Primate Research Center in San Antonio, Texas. Newt was HIV-positive and was widely exposed to hepatitis B virus. Before he was four years old, he began intermittently self-harming. In 2003 he had his canines removed. Newt's clinical reports indicated that he had bites and lacerations on his hands, fingers, thighs, arms, legs, wrists and scrotum. A psychiatric report determined that Newt was in a profound state of insanity and derangement. He was attempting to commit suicide and end his life. This image is dedicated to all primates who have suffered psychological and physical torture, deprivation of liberty, abominable experiments and death in scientific laboratories, pharmaceutical, automobile, cosmetic, aeronautical, aerospace multinationals... and dedicated especially to Bobby, Jeannie and Newt.
The chimpanzee Mama, hours before she died and the reunion with her caretaker.
Silvio Rodríguez - Al final de este viaje / Al final de este viaje (1978)
We are the prehistory that will have the future. We are the remote annals of man. These years are the past of the sky. These years are a certain agility with which the sun draws you into the future. They are the truth or the end, they are god. We are left, those who can smile in the midst of death, in full light.
Supergrass - Tales of Endurance, Pt. 4, 5 & 6 / Road to Rouen (2005)
Making sense of what I've heard and what is on my mind.
.....
PS: When I look into the eyes of an ape, all I see in them is sadness and eyes that ask me, why, why? And I can only lower my gaze to the ground, while I shed some tears and feel a deep shame... shame of being human... a "Homo stupidus".
Aphex Twin - Stone In Focus / Selected Ambient Works II (1994)
Tales of endurance.
Primate DNA is only five percent different from ours. Like us, they feel jealousy, envy, love, shame, grief, depression... They are very social beings, they are sensitive and each one has a different personality, according to the experts, as happens in humans. They develop tools for specific purposes, which involves reasoning, anticipating the future and acting with the tool. They adopt orphans, which demonstrates social bonds, empathy and altruism. They have self-awareness, cooperative problem-solving and learning by example and experience, so they have symbolic capacity and a culture of their own, which they pass on from one generation to the next. Chimpanzees even surpass humans in certain memory tasks. An ape at the age of two is able to do small sums and use tools, while a two year old does not even know how to do sums or reason the why of the tool. They give pets to their children and they even learn words in sign language, being able to establish a conversation with their caregiver. They are able to teach their offspring sign language so that they can communicate with their caregivers. And so on. And they share a very important trait with humans, a trait not found in any other animal... laughter.
This image is dedicated to Bobby. Bobby was a chimpanzee used for decades as a laboratory animal at the Coulston Foundation in Alamogordo, New Mexico. He was born in captivity and at a very young age participated in biomedical experiments. By the age of 19, he had been anaesthetised more than 250 times and biopsied as many times. His life was spent in solitude inside a tiny metal cage. His body was bruised and scarred. In a deeply depressed state, he was incessantly self-harming, a clear sign that he intended to end his life. In 2002 he was transferred to Save the Chimps, a chimpanzee sanctuary in Louisiana, USA. Dedicated to Jeannie. Jeannie was in the service of science for nine years. At the age of six, she began her career in the pharmaceutical laboratories of Merck, Sharpe and Dohme. Shortly afterwards she was donated to the Buckshire Corporation and ended up at LEMSIP, Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates in New York at the age of 22. During that time she participated in several invasive experimental protocols including repeated vaginal douching, multiple cervical, liver and lymph node biopsies. She was infected with HIV and hepatitis C, and participated in rhinovirus vaccination protocols. She was anaesthetised more than 200 times. She died at the age of 31 at the Fauna Foundation, Canada's only primate sanctuary. Dedicated to Newt. Newt was born in 1979 at LEMSIP. At the age of four months he was sold to the Southwest National Primate Research Center in San Antonio, Texas. Newt was HIV-positive and was widely exposed to hepatitis B virus. Before he was four years old, he began intermittently self-harming. In 2003 he had his canines removed. Newt's clinical reports indicated that he had bites and lacerations on his hands, fingers, thighs, arms, legs, wrists and scrotum. A psychiatric report determined that Newt was in a profound state of insanity and derangement. He was attempting to commit suicide and end his life. This image is dedicated to all primates who have suffered psychological and physical torture, deprivation of liberty, abominable experiments and death in scientific laboratories, pharmaceutical, automobile, cosmetic, aeronautical, aerospace multinationals... and dedicated especially to Bobby, Jeannie and Newt.
The chimpanzee Mama, hours before she died and the reunion with her caretaker.
Silvio Rodríguez - Al final de este viaje / Al final de este viaje (1978)
We are the prehistory that will have the future. We are the remote annals of man. These years are the past of the sky. These years are a certain agility with which the sun draws you into the future. They are the truth or the end, they are god. We are left, those who can smile in the midst of death, in full light.
Supergrass - Tales of Endurance, Pt. 4, 5 & 6 / Road to Rouen (2005)
Making sense of what I've heard and what is on my mind.
.....
PS: When I look into the eyes of an ape, all I see in them is sadness and eyes that ask me, why, why? And I can only lower my gaze to the ground, while I shed some tears and feel a deep shame... shame of being human... a "Homo stupidus".
Aphex Twin - Stone In Focus / Selected Ambient Works II (1994)