Invisible Animals: a work that blends science, literature and art | Culture and entertainment

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Animals that no longer exist, or that we share the planet with and have never been able to see are the heroes of Invisible Animals (Nórdica Libros-Capitán Swing), a work by writer Gabe Martinez and archaeologist Jordi. Siralonga.

Martinez told Efe, who explained that the text aims to show the different cultures that coexist with these mysterious creatures and invite them to continue to find and find out more about them for yourself.

The publication is the result of nearly 10 years of travel by the authors to the farthest and most strange corners of the planet to discover these creatures or myths surrounding them, although they both agree that “this cannot be considered the culmination of this exploration as work continues.”

Indeed, after the book was published, they met with interest “many people” who would like to join their next expeditions.

Many of the animals featured in the book are “difficult to see,” as is the case for the giant squid (Architeuthis) that lives in the depths of the sea, a place nearly inaccessible to humans, but that leaves evidence of its presence in their prey, sperm whales, where it can sometimes Seeing the signs of the tentacles of this huge cephalopod.

Something similar happens with the shoe bird (Balencipes Rex), a bird wrapped in the myth of loneliness that has been seen many times – mainly in the Congo, Uganda and South Sudan – or the pink dolphin (Inia Geoffrensis) an animal from that there is not much data but it is known that it is It lives in the Amazon and acquires this color when excited or surprised.

Prehistoric animals such as megalodon (Carcharodon megalodon) or woolly mammoth (Mammuthus Primigenius) long ago stopped living on the planet’s surface, but continued to pique the interest of paleontologists and naturalists, who are trying to explain their way of life. Creatures based on the experience and traditions of people who knew them in life preserved to this day.

The work also leaves space for the terrain of mythology by introducing creatures that did not even exist, or at least we do not have clear evidence of their existence, as it happens with the yeti, kraken or mermaids.

Although there is no evidence of its existence, this species is found in the culture of many subpopulations, and there are people who offer rewards for finding tangible evidence.

“I also traveled with the authors but I did it from home, through colors and textures,” adds Efe, the project’s illustrator, Joanna Santamans, who has spent nearly 7 months finishing all of the unseen animal illustrations that accompany the Martinez and Seralonga stories.

Santamans explains that the commission “does fit with my personal projects, but I have conveyed it to my feelings and ways of feeling living, in a certain way, the same thing they lived before the book was published,” which explores the three sensitivities announced by its authors: the sciences, the humanities, and art.

American actor Vigo Mortenson presented the book “Invisible Animals”, which describes the book as “a reading that serves as a warning of the consequences of human intervention in the animal world,” as evidenced by “the need that many animals have to hide. For fear of human action.”

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