THÉO DE GUELTZL

Théo De Gueltzl

Direction

Sophie Strobele

Words

Nearly seven million people in Colombia have been internally displaced. For five decades, Colombia has faced one of the world’s most severe internal displacement situations caused by conflict and violence. Economic inequality, corruption and unequal distribution of land and resources led to a 50 year long conflict involving government security forces, left-wing guerrillas like theFARC and the ELN, right-wing paramilitary groups and organized crime rings like the BACRIM. During the conflict, non-state armed actors were especially active in marginalized areas where state presence was weak or absent. It is estimated that more than 4.5 million hectares of land were abandoned or seized during the conflict.

Even though a peace agreement was signed in 2016 between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), internal displacement in the country continues as other illegal groups remain active : in 2017 another 140.000 new displacements due to conflict and violence were recorded.

In addition, the government promotes large-scale land acquisitions policies for large-scale development projects, adding to the complexity of displacement in the country. The past government of Manuel Santos sold licenses enabling foreign companies to exploit vast amounts of native land. For instance, the Páramo of Santurbàn, … , was sold to an Emirati Mining venture – and a Canadian timber harvesting company has now sovereignty over the rain forest on the Pacific Coast.

Only around 450.000 of those internally displaced have returned home with the assistance of the government. The process of land restitution, when it exists, is extremely slow. Many of the displaced belong to Afro-Colombian and indigenous peoples - their land is often located in rural, resource-rich areas that are targeted by armed groups. Minorities face particular difficulties in securing the recognition of their land rights.


The phenomenon of forced displacement in rural zones rich in resources is throughout this series of photographs, taken during a five month long travel through Colombia’s diverse regions.

Colombia

We enter a holy world. A world without immorality, jealousy, hatred and violence. Golden light stretches over the fruitful land. Countless acres of corn, beans and soy lay in front of us. They are farmed by the Mennonites, a religious community in Central America, Belize.


Originating in Central Europe and Holland in the 16th century, the Mennonite Church became global when the first settlements established in the early 18th century in North America, followed by arrivals of the communities in Central and South America. Today settlements reach until Asia and Africa. Likewise to the Amish, the Mennonites are followers of the Anabaptist movement. One of the main reason for their early banishment from Europe was their pacific, nonviolent approach to life, exercising resistance to military service and nationalistic practices. Their belief developed unique ideas of the church, the state and society, the practice of these ideas varies from community to community.


Subject to this text is the particular community of Little Belize, where the use of electricity and modern technology is restricted. Core values are formed by a communal conscious, strong familial structures and a tolerant religious practice. They are a hardworking community, cultivating multiple thousand acres of land.


„I know I’ll be working until I die. All of us are. We work in order to live. And we live in order to work. It’s a simple life“. Visiting the community in Little Belize, we speak to Jacob Schmitt, father of twenty children and a farmer for his entire life. What is striking while talking to Jacob, is the calm and wit with which he is leading the conversation. „Why would you need a legal system or an executive if you can live peacefully within your community?“ Coming from a modern society of today one can think of a multitude of arguments to contradict his provocative question. The size difference between a small, simple society like the one of the Mennonites, and a modern developed society alone explains why in a modern society, legal system and executive are needed to maintain order and functionality. Mechanisms are established in order to transform outliers „drop outs“ of society into law abiding, tax paying citizen again. In a small society like the one of the Mennonites, fetihs (Fehden) and disputes can be solved among families, there is no need for lawyers, advocates and a complex legal framework. The structures of society are different.

Mennonites 

Mythscapes 

Théo de Gueltzl

Photography

Ralph Cox

 Sheriff 

Post-production

 Laura Genninger

 Studio 191 NY

Creative direction

For Atmos Magazine, Volume 4, Cascade, 2020

Thin Space 

Photography & Sculptures

Ere Foundation

 Fox and Leopard

Production

CONSTRUCT
October 9th to 11th 
Espace Sylvia Rielle
10 Place des Vosges, 75004 Paris

‘Construct is a series of photographs and the only documentation of four sculptures built and destroyed on the same day. Put together by a collective of creatives from the fashion industry, Construct aims to raise awareness on the urgent need to shift from our linear system to a circular economy model. This artistic project is a collaboration with French photographer and sculpture artist Théo de Gueltzl, set designer Heath Mattioli, the LA based production team Fox&Leopard and ERE’s creative team.
These trying times have inevitably pushed us, designers, models, stylists, photographers, MUAs and all creatives working in fashion to acknowledge the impact of this industry in our lives and on our environment. It is now crucial to envision a post crisis industry without forgetting fashion’s important role in society: it unites people, creates strong connections, offers work opportunities in an artistic environment, permits cultural exchanges and so much more. This momentum of collective responsibility can help shape a better perspective for our industry and emphasize its significant contribution. Immobilism is over, beginning with ourselves.
As the very essence of this project, the ephemeral life and gigantic scale of these constructions reflects the proportion of waste humankind is producing every single day. Each of these sculptures reaches up to 6 meters and they are made of what is considered as waste, from materials that arrived on that very day in a recycling facility in Los Angeles. After being photographed in the back alley of the facility, the sculptures were dismantled and the materials made available again to find a new purpose.
We are accountable for the abundance of materials humankind keeps producing and polluting planet earth. We have reached a point where materials now need to be reused and turned into something useful, protecting the natural resources that sustain us. Through valuing waste, diverting materials before they end up in landfills, we can drastically reduce the production of virgin materials and battle the short life of objects.’

A limited number of prints are available for sale, all profits collected by the ERE endowment fund will be donated to Drip by Drip, the first NGO in the world committed to the fight against water problems in the fashion industry.


Construct

Octave Marsal

Illustration

Carré Hermès

Faubourg Tropical 

Amazonia

Giant peonies, fragile though powerful, rise from a proliferation of architectural forms in this poetic play on scale. Their extraordinary corollas bloom over an imaginary city. A city filled with details of beautiful palaces and vast residences, sanctuaries for luxuriant vegetation. Octave Marsal and Theo de Gueltzl bring their worlds, dreams and visions face-to-face in this collaborative design. The utopian universe created by these two artists is an invitation to a meditative journey; a magical scarf in the sense that regardless of which nuance captures the eyes gaze, it's as if this scarf always seems to make perfect sense.

A l'ombre des pivoines

Theo de Gueltzl

Creative Direction

 2018-2019

Date

Jamaica

Redemption 75 

En Grec ancien, les Moriai (pluriel de Moria) désignaient des oliviers, considérés comme étant la propriété de l’Etat pour leur caractère religieux.

Dans ce dessin, nous avons choisi de représenter une société qui reconnaît la dimension sacrée et spirituelle de la Nature et son indispensabilité pour le bien-être des Hommes.

Ainsi, elle devient indissociable de la vie de la cité, son respect s’exprime par l’intérêt des Hommes de la protéger face aux méfaits infligés par la société. Ici, elle est sacralisée et vénérée.

Moriapolis

Manifest to Protect the Diversity of Cultures

A constant aspiration for development and improvement characterize the modern western society and explain its indisputable expansion and global influence. Modern industrial society, scarcely 300 years old, is proof for the radical and ubiquitous impact of Western values. Whether identified by the monikers westernization, globalization, capitalism, democracy or free trade, Modernity has grown into something so global, so expansive, that it often seems as the only possible direction. The right way. Yet, it is the expression of a set of values, rather than the absolute wave of history.

Granted, modern achievements involving technological innovations and scientific research encompass some of the greatest of human endeavours. Nonetheless, these accomplishments do not suggest that the Western paradigm ought to have a monopoly on the path of the future. Especially as the economic model of production and consumption, guiding our modern values, compromises the life support of our planet. On a scale not seen on earth since the disappearance of dinosaurs, our civilization drives plants and animals to extinction. The damning of rivers, pollution of water, extraction of soil, deforestation and overfishing is all entailed into an industrial process that threatens to transform the chemistry and physics of the atmosphere.

Upsettingly, this destruction and appropriation is often justified as it fosters development and improvement of Modern life. This does not only sacrifice the environment, but likewise our people and cultures. Once a society inhabits or occupies a territory that is of interest to the modern economic model, other cultures and habits are seen as rivals. Evident in history, imperialism and colonialism, the base for the global spread of the Western world and modern civilization, have for centuries forced indigenous people across the globe to surrender to colonial powers. Today, the imperial power has been replaced by private ventures and corporations that extract natural resources on an industrial scale from territories that have long been occupied by indigenous peoples. Disturbingly, this disenfranchisement and deterritorialization of indigenous people is considered as appropriate policy of development. We thrive in a civilization that rationalizes ethnocide, being the destruction of a persons way of life, for the sake of modernization, or rather the extraction of capital.

In depth, the conflict is not between ancient or modern, it is the crude idea of domination. Within the scientific practice and consequently the education of Western Civilization roots a feeling of superiority over peoples who follow different parameters. Somehow the other is des- tined to fade away, as if they are failed attempts of „being modern“. Caught up in our individual pursuit of happiness and prosperity, we risk failing to recognize the richness and diversity of life that we will loose, once every component of life follows the same valuation system. The diversity of ethnicities, languages and cultures is a gift that allows us to continue experiencing, learning and thriving. Culture is not trivial, it is a body of knowledge that allows the individuals to make sense of the infinite sensations of consciousness. To find meaning and order in a universe that ultimately has neither.

Diversity cultural, economical or ecological has the ability to sustain balance on this earth. We have to trust in this organic rhythm of life, change perspective and not fear interdependence. Ecosystems exist symbiotically in confined spaces, each species serving a crucial role in the larger puzzle. Whereas a monoculture, the cultivation of a single crop, is beneficial for a few years, before the soil turns arid and the look of the same fruit becomes bore some.

What if humanity will be confined within the limits of a single intellectual and spiritual ideal? What if we are laying the foundation for a generic modern culture that will have no opponents?