THE TURTLES CARRY THE WORLD

Nice, Musée archéologique de Cimiez © C. Bouissou

THE TURTLES CARRY THE WORLD

photo
vidéo performance

Video duration : 3min

Atlas, a tamed Hermann's tortoise, walks through the ruins of the Museum of Archaeology in Cimiez, Nice, with an inflatable map of the world on his back. The turtle is at the heart of legends and cosmogony. It carries the world in many cultures and here it walks on the back of a turtle through the ruins of civilization.

The world turtle :
(also called cosmic turtle, world-carrying turtle or divine turtle) is a myth representing a giant turtle (or sea turtle) supporting or containing the world.

Geoterrapinism :
refers to the theory that the earth is a disc carried on the back of a giant turtle that carries us through the vastness of the cosmos. Geoterrapinism refers mainly to the theory developed in the 17th century by the explorer Jasper Danckaerts.

- no animal has been mistreated -

realized with the help of the Archaeological Museum of Cimiez, Nice