Description
ME, GOD OF THE EARTH
2010, Paris
Me, God of the Earth. Two thousand ten. Forty-seven years old. The titan. The Atlas. The Prometheus. The man-god bearing the weight of his own creation. Three hundred by two hundred centimeters. Three meters high. Monumental format. Immeasurable ambition. Declaration of maximal hubris. Me, God of the Earth. Comma after “Me”. Important. Not “Me God” fused. But “Me, God” — me who proclaim myself God. Blasphemous pretension. Divine. And the image shows what. Atlas overwhelmed. Titan bending. Man-machine on verge of rupture. Muscles tensed. Head bowed. Suffering. Maximum effort. Bearing on shoulders arms back legs entire body. What. Civilization. Our technical civilization. Seven pillars. Seven precise elements. Methodical inventory. Complete cartography. From top to bottom. From most abstract to most concrete. From most recent to most ancient. The seven sins of modernity.
At the top. All the way up. Human clones. Upper left. Human figures reproduced. Identical copies. Biotechnology. Cloning. Man taking himself for God creator. Dolly the cloned sheep in nineteen ninety-six. Beginning of era. Debates on stem cells. Fear of human cloning. Fantasy and nightmare. Create copies of humans. Eugenics. Transhumanism. Human as manufactured product. Artificial reproduction. Fabrication of beings. Genetic manipulation. Selection. Control of life. Commodification of the living. Patents on genes. Made-to-order babies. The pride. The first sin. Take oneself for God. Create life. But these clones borne by Atlas. Why at top. Because most recent technologically. Most “advanced”. The cutting edge. Most terrifying. Manipulate life itself.
At center top. Dominant position. Central. The atomic bomb. Little Boy. That of Hiroshima. August sixth nineteen forty-five. One hundred forty thousand dead. Perhaps more. Beginning of nuclear era. Gray metal cylinder. Fins. Torpedo of death. Capacity of planetary annihilation. Power to destroy entire humanity. Military-industrial complex. Arms race. Mutually assured destruction. MAD. Humanity holding button of its own suicide. Why at center. Why at top. Because most threatening element. Everything else conditioned by nuclear balance. Sword of Damocles suspended over all. In two thousand ten. Nuclear proliferation. Iran. North Korea. Threat of nuclear terrorism. Arms race continues. Russia. USA. China. The wrath. The second sin. Capacity of total destruction. And irony of title. “Me, God of the Earth”. But a god who bears a bomb capable of destroying its own creation.
At right top. Symmetric with clones. The oil wells. Derricks. Extraction towers. Petrol. Gas. Fossil energy. The addiction. Energy dependence. Ecological destruction. Oil spills. Climate warming. Geopolitics. Wars for oil. Iraq. Middle East. In two thousand ten. April two thousand ten precisely. Deepwater Horizon. Oil spill in Gulf of Mexico. Major catastrophe. Eleven dead. Eighty-seven days of leak. Five million barrels spilled. Ecological disaster. And while this. Wars Iraq Afghanistan. Control of resources. Volatile oil prices. Two thousand eight crisis still fresh. Beginning of climate awareness. But continued dependence. The avarice. The third sin. Endless extraction. Accumulation.
At center exactly. The heart of system. The money box. Safe. Money. Wealth. Finance. Capitalism. Accumulation. Profit. Banks. Stock markets. Speculation. Inequalities. One percent against ninety-nine percent. Financial crisis of two thousand eight. Still present in two thousand ten. Bank rescues. Massive bailouts. Too big to fail. Banks become more powerful than states. Central position. Because everything revolves around money. Above. Destructive technologies. Bomb. Oil. Clones. Below. Material infrastructures. Concrete. Meat. Cars. Money connects everything. We make war for money. We build for money. We kill for money. We clone for money. We extract for money. Capitalism is system that unifies. Motivates. Organizes all other pillars. Without profit. None of these pillars would exist in industrial form. The greed again. The fourth sin. Cupidity.
Bottom left. Material base. Foundations. Concrete reservoir. Tank. Industrial structure. Concrete. Construction industry. Building. Real estate. Urbanization. Giant cities. Megalopolises. Concrete everywhere. Soil artificialisation. Infrastructures. Dams. Roads. Bridges. Concrete material of twentieth century. Le Corbusier. Brutalism. Modern cities. But also. Nature destruction. Pollution. Ugliness. In two thousand ten. China constructs massively. Ghost cities. Real estate bubble. Precedes two thousand eight crisis. Paris. Gentrification. Construction continues. Concretization of world. The envy. The fifth sin. Always wanting to build more.
Bottom right. Most brutal. Most violent. Head of horse emerging from machine to kill. Slaughter gun. Slaughterhouse. Meat industry. Industrial breeding. Industrialized death of animals. Normalized violence. Killing equals productive routine. Machine to kill. Mechanized murder. Cold. Efficient. Why horse specifically. Noble animal. Mythology. Transport. Companion. In France two thousand ten. Cultural taboo. One does “not” eat horse in France. But one does it anyway. Betrayal. Horse served us. Labour. War. Transport. And one kills it industrially. Captive bolt pistol. Kills in one second. Slaughter line. Fordism applied to death. Maximum efficiency. Zero empathy. The gluttony. The sixth sin. Consumption of industrial meat.
All the way at bottom. At base of everything. Literally under Atlas. The car. Individual automobile. Automobile industry. Ford. General Motors. Renault. Peugeot. Carbonized mobility. Petrol. Diesel. Urban sprawl. Suburbia. Car dependence. Illusory freedom. Individual autonomy versus collective pollution. In two thousand ten. Crisis of automobile industry. General Motors in bankruptcy two thousand nine. Saved by state. Beginning of electric cars. Tesla Roadster two thousand eight. But marginal. Total dependence. World economy depends on automobile. The lust and sloth. The seventh sin. Individual pleasure. Refusal of effort.
Seven pillars. Seven elements. Seven sins. Exhaustive inventory. Methodical. Implacable. Atlas does not bear abstract chaos. He bears exactly. Our biotechnology. Our capacity of destruction. Our energy dependence. Our economic system. Our infrastructures. Our normalized violence. Our carbonized mobility. He bears modern industrial civilization in its entirety. Nothing missing. Hierarchical organization. From top to bottom. From most abstract to most concrete. From most recent to most ancient. At top. Advanced technologies. Clones. Bomb. Oil. At middle. Economic system. Bank. Finance. Capitalism. The heart. At bottom. Material infrastructures. Concrete. Slaughterhouse. Car.
Two possible readings. First reading. Chronological. Historical evolution. Bottom equals past. Car late nineteenth early twentieth century. Concrete twentieth century. Industrial slaughterhouses twentieth century. Middle equals twentieth century. Modern finance post nineteen forty-five. Top equals present future. Oil twentieth but still central. Atomic bomb nineteen forty-five and after. Clones late twentieth early twenty-first. Atlas bears entire history of industrial modernity. From car base to clones summit. Second reading. Importance and abstraction. Bottom equals concrete. Material. Tangible. We see we touch cars concrete. Visible violence. Slaughterhouse. Middle equals abstract but central. Money equals abstraction. Symbolic value. Invisible but governs everything. Top equals ultra-abstract. Technological. Terrifying. Cloning almost science-fiction. Nuclear incomprehensible to common. Oil black liquid that governs world. More you ascend more abstract and terrifying. More you descend more concrete and quotidian.
Each element double-edged. Ambivalence. Clones. Positive. Medicine. Stem cells. Organs. Negative. Eugenics. Dehumanization. Atomic bomb. Positive. Nuclear energy. Electricity. Negative. Massive destruction. Hiroshima. Oil. Positive. Abundant energy. Industrial revolution. Negative. Climate warming. Wars. Bank. Positive. Credit. Investment. Development. Negative. Speculation. Inequalities. Crises. Concrete. Positive. Infrastructures. Housing. Roads. Negative. Soil artificialisation. Pollution. Ugliness. Slaughterhouse. Positive. Food. Proteins. Food security. Negative. Animal suffering. Industrial violence. Car. Positive. Mobility. Freedom. Economic development. Negative. Pollution. Accidents. Fossil dependence. None is purely good or bad. All are ambiguous. Necessary AND destructive. That is the tragic. We can neither continue it destroys us nor stop we collapse.
And me. Two thousand ten. Forty-seven years old. Paris. I was painting this colossal man. This contemporary Atlas. Bearing everything. The seven pillars. But cracking. Muscles on verge of rupture. Hubris encounters limits. Divine pretension encounters reality. Me God. But God exhausted. God suffering. God about to collapse. Prophecy. Fifteen years before. Two thousand ten. Before collapses of two thousand twenty. Before current climate catastrophes. But already I saw. Man takes himself for God. But cracks under weight of his own creation.
I remember. Two thousand ten. Financial crisis of two thousand eight still present. Global recession. Banks collapsed. Economies trembling. And yet humanity continued. Machines continued. Industry continued. Armaments continued. And me forty-seven years seven years of exile. I reflected on human power. Human pretension. Since Prometheus stealing fire from gods. Since Babel tower rising to sky. Since Icarus approaching sun. Always man wanting to be god. Always punishment. Prometheus chained. Babel destroyed. Icarus fallen. And now. Two thousand ten. New version. New hubris. Clones. Bomb. Oil. Bank. Concrete. Slaughterhouse. Car. Seven pillars of our pride. Seven sins of our modernity.
But crucial difference. Capital. In tableau. It is not a real man. It is a sculpture. Marble. Stone. Sculptural Atlas. Not living Atlas. Man is not real in image. He is like sculpture. A product also of human creation. Why this difference. Essential. Because sculpture can hold. Marble resists. Stone supports. Indefinitely. Sculptural Atlas can bear seven pillars. Forever. Without failing. But real man. Living man. Man of flesh and blood. He would collapse immediately. No one can bear all that. Physically. Psychologically. Spiritually. Impossible. Bear weight of clones. Uncontrolled biotechnology. Bear weight of bomb. Permanent nuclear threat. Bear weight of oil. Climate destruction. Bear weight of finance. Inequalities. Crises. Bear weight of concrete. Uninhabitable cities. Bear weight of slaughterhouse. Daily violence against living. Bear weight of car. Pollution. Accidents.
Real man can have choice. Become alive and responsible. If he makes right decisions. While he doesn’t understand consequences of his acts. He remains god trapped in his flesh. No transcendence of Demiurge. That is key. Right decisions. What right decisions. Refuse these seven pillars. Not build civilization on them. No clones. Respect living. Do not play God. No bomb. Nuclear disarmament. No oil. Renewable energies. Sobriety. No speculative finance. Real economy. Solidarity. No concrete everywhere. Build with nature not against. No industrial slaughterhouses. Vegetarianism. Animal respect. No individual cars. Collective transport. Bicycle. But can one live without these seven pillars. Entire question. And that is why real man must choose. Be responsible. Conscious of consequences. Otherwise. He remains dead sculpture. Demiurge without transcendence. Material god prisoner of his flesh. No spirituality. No elevation. Just hubris and collapse.
Ironic title. Proclamation of hubris. “Me, God of the Earth”. Comma important. Me who proclaim myself God. But image denies. Crushing. Suffering. Imminent rupture. Prophecy. Warning. Critique of transhumanism. Man wants to become god through technique. But becomes dead sculpture. Bearing dead machines. Without spiritual transcendence. Simple material Demiurge. Prisoner of his flesh. Seven pillars equal seven sins of modernity. Money box at center. Capitalism unifies all others. Without profit. Nothing exists in industrial form. Exhaustive inventory. Implacable. Prophetic.
April two thousand ten precisely. Deepwater Horizon. Gulf of Mexico. Oil platform explodes. April twentieth. Eleven dead. Eighty-seven days of leak. Five million barrels spilled. Ecological disaster. Giant oil spill. Coasts of Louisiana devastated. Marine fauna destroyed. Fisheries ruined. And world watched. Powerless. Oil — third pillar — showed its true nature. Destruction. Death. But world continued extracting. Continued consuming. Total dependence. Collective suicide. And me I was painting Atlas bearing oil derrick. Prophecy in real time.
December two thousand nine. COP15 in Copenhagen. Total failure. No binding agreement. No real action. Nations continued. Business as usual. Oil. Coal. Gas. Concrete. Cars. Climate was collapsing. But we changed nothing. Atlas continued bearing. Muscles cracking. But sculpture held. Real man should have let go. Chosen differently. But no. Hubris continued.
Me God of the Earth. Three meters high. Format monumental. Ambition immeasurable. Inventory of seven pillars of modern civilization. Clones. Bomb. Oil. Bank. Concrete. Slaughterhouse. Car. Each necessary. Each destructive. All ambiguous. All tragic. Sculptural Atlas can hold. Marble resists. But real man would collapse. Must choose differently. Become alive. Responsible. Conscious. Otherwise remains dead sculpture. Material Demiurge. Without transcendence. Title ironic. Proclamation of hubris denied by image. Prophecy. Fifteen years before Soledad. Before collapse. But already visible. Already painted. Atlas on verge rupture. Civilization at verge abyss. Humanity playing God. But cracking under weight of its own creation. Lesson not learned. In two thousand ten. Still not learned in two thousand twenty-five. Atlas continues bearing. Muscles continue cracking. Bomb continues threatening. And we continue pretending to be gods of the earth. Despite contrary evidence. Despite collapses ongoing. Despite catastrophes multiplying. For always. Me God of the Earth. For always contemporary Atlas. For always titan on verge rupture. For always bomb at summit. For always threat destruction. For always lesson not learned. For always hubris encounters limits. For always divine pretension encounters human reality. For always.
