BORNEM, Belgium, Jan. 28 /PRNewswire-Asia/ --
Project PROTECT 7-7 is nearing completion. The project is the brainchild of Antwerp (Belgium) art photographer Wim Tellier, who surprised the world in 2007 with his 600 square meter baby pictures in various large cities in the world and even on the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles. From January 26 through February 6, an art installation of 30,000 square meters will be installed in Antarctica, the coldest continent.
Protect 7-7 is an expansion of Wim Tellier’s trademark: the integration of gigantic pictures in chosen environments. This creates mega-installations that are then photographed from the air by Wim Tellier. On January 26 the team will leave for the South Pole. Polar expert Alain Hubert will lead the expedition for this first art exposition ever on the seventh continent.
Last year Wim Tellier took photos on six continents. For each continent he made an enlargement. Through a worldwide 300-people network 4,500 children were photographed. In addition, for each continent he took photographs of one older person sunning. The children made colored drawings on Plexiglas and showed them to Wim Tellier who took pictures of them. The children made drawings based on the theme: "their dreams and our planet’s future." Tellier had all these children make their drawings on a Plexiglas plate because he wanted to give each work its own identity. All these dreams were brought together by means of six enlargements. The objective was to emphasize that each dream depends on who made it.
PROTECT 7-7 should grow into a worldwide, multi-layered photographic art project, where continents, elderly and children form the work basis for a gigantic carousel of ideas. The seven continents represent the Earth, the elderly their "heritage", the 4,500 children the future and dreams.
Uniting the six continents on the seventh continent - a neutral place was chosen to emphasize that we live all together on the same planet. The installation consists of six people sunning on Antarctica. This refers to the Global Warming problems.
The elderly were photographed naked, but their vital parts were covered with down to emphasize man’s vulnerability.
The installation will be set up at the South Pole in front of the Princess Elisabeth Station, which serves as a unique landmark. The huge photographs have now arrived there, after travelling two months by ship. Together these photos weigh three tons. The print work for the photographs was an unprecedented technical feat. After all, each photo is 18 gigabytes in size.
The installation will be exhibited on Antarctica from January 26 through February 6, 2009. The installation will travel to Antwerp in April 2009 where it will be accessible for the general public for the first time. Then the installation will be sent to New York.
Part of Wim Tellier’s trademark is that he tries to fund his projects by selling enlargements. These enlargements are cut into pieces and for an affordable price every one can buy a unique piece measuring 80/80 cm (edition 1/1). That way, people can acquire a part of Protect 7-7. One fourth of the total 7,500 pieces was already sold, mainly through the project’s website: http://www.protect77.com, which has already been visited by people from more than 155 countries.
Wim Tellier’s previous project, W-Wish, was a major success and all enlargements were sold. For each piece sold, PROTECT 7-7 donates a percentage to the International Polar Foundation.
http://www.protect77.com
