By the artist Johannes Stoetter and The Memory Of Water Productions.
Created in Utakleiv, Lofoten, Norway for The Memory Of Water Productions.
Sea Turtle was created in Lofoten Norway in October 2020 during the art residence for The Memory of Water project. The artists' group: body painter Johannes Stoetter, choreographer/dancer Malgorzata Sus, film director/visual artist Vilija Vitkute, documentary filmmaker Linnea Grimstedt, and accompanying them a Norwegian composer Tine Surel Lange, created an illusionary performance on the Utakleiv beach—a sea turtle became alive in a human form. The project speaks about the connection between humans and sea animals and brings attention to the sea life crisis.
Bodypainting illusion created by artist Johannes Stoetter to rise awareness about our relationship with nature
The Sea Turtle body painting artwork was created for the first time by Johannes Stoetter on April 12, 2019. The turtle illusion was released officially in the media and presented several times in different venues around the world and in worldwide TV shows. The Memory of Water art residence in Lofoten, Norway, was the first opportunity to capture the illusionary bodypainting in the natural surroundings on the Utakleiv beach by the Arctic Ocean. Loggerhead turtles are not seen in this region of the world, but that gives even more strangeness to the appearance of the turtle and directs the attention to all the anomalies of the natural world nowadays.
While filming the Sea Turtle illusion on the Utakleiv beach in Lofoten, we were informed that near our location a big dead sperm whale had been found. After finishing filming we went to see the whale and it was an absolutely appalling view that moved us deeply and brought a reflection about the condition of the animals living in the ocean. Both turtles and whales are seriously endangered and they suffer enormous harm due to the human activity on the global waters such as fishing industry, pollution caused by fishing and other plastic, and oil pollution, as well as they are impacted by climate change and rising temperature of the ocean.