Fragile Giants installation at the Museum of Natural History, Paris

Michel Bassompierre’s iconic Fragile Giants (Fragiles Colosses) installation can be seen on the lawns of the Museum of Natural History in Paris. This Fragile Giants are five great animals: the Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus); two Brown Bears (Ursus arctos) – the Salmons Bear and the Honey Bear; and two Western Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) – the Silver Back Gorilla and the Dominant Gorilla.

Michel Bassompierre has been drawing attention in the world of animal sculptures. Since the end of the 1970s, he uses the pure form, delicate curves, and light that emphasizes the roundness and weight, while retaining the elements of tenderness and poetry.

The Western Gorilla and the Polar Bear are species threatened with extinction in the near future. The Brown Bears, although protected, there are only a few left in France.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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