Art
Societe Generale Private Banking supports artists whose work is perfectly consistent with our values of contemporary art and social and environmental responsibility.
Gregory Ryan‘s sculpture project “The Ephemeral in the Eternal” seeks to increase awareness of the fragility of our environment, to pay tribute to the natural beauty of our world, and to create a tactile library of life forms.
Gregory Ryan, witness for nature
Awareness of the fragility of our environment”
Gregory Ryan is an American sculptor who trained in France. For the past 15 years he has travelled the world, feeding his fascination with the beauty and diversity of different species and the textures of nature. His work involves capturing and reproducing in bronze the forms of extinct species or species threatened with extinction, of eroded surfaces and living textures, from the wing of a butterfly to the skin of an elephant. One of his masterpieces is a monumental sculpture reproducing DNA extracted from a 20 million year old fossilised magnolia leaf.
A tactile library of life forms
“The Ephemeral in the Eternal” aims not only to preserve our shared natural wealth by creating a “tactile library of life forms”, but also to make us aware of the dangers that threaten vast tracts of nature. Gregory Ryan says: “Since the sudden extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago, never have biological species disappeared at such a rapid rate as they are today. Some predict that at this rate, two thirds of all living species will disappear within this century.”
Sharing, preserving passing on
“The Ephemeral in the Eternal” is an international travelling exhibition set to commence in 2012. Clients and members of staff will be able to meet the artist, to discuss his work with him, and to follow the project’s advancement.
By supporting “The Ephemeral in the Eternal”, Societe Generale Private Banking aims, as it does with its private banking activity, to contribute to preserving and passing on our heritage.
