Last Friday, January 27, a group of artists met at the Natural History Museum-MHN of the Natural History Society-SGHN of Ferrol, with the aim of soaking up information when generating informative materials on marine mammals and the sea.
The Friednship-orcas project, carried out by the Coordinadora de Estudios de Mamíferos Marinos-CEMMA and the Orca Atlántica Working Group-GTOA is financed by Fundación Santander, beeing the promoters of this initiative.
Reference museum in the marine environment
Ferrol's MHN-SGHN is currently a museum and interpretive reference point for the marine environment at a European level. The facility, the responsibility of the SGHN in collaboration with the Ferrol City Council, currently has one of the most important collections of specimens, bone remains and interpretive models of marine animals at a European level. In addition to having specimens of sharks, giant squids and a lot of complete cetacean skeletons, it has a collection of models, a reflection of real specimens, all presided over by an immense 18-meter skeleton of a common whale. The collection makes it have a repercussion and importance at the level of the most important European naturalist museums, still modest, but without detracting from the importance of the collections. These materials serve as a guide and inspiration for the documentation generated by the artists.
The team
Seven artists were part of the team: Pepe Carreiro, cartoonist and illustrator, creator of the Bolechas characters. Emma Ríos, cartoonist with international projection. Manel Craneo cartoonist, illustrator and editor, creator of Carmela Orzán environmental detective. Sara Bermúdez, cartoonist and illustrator of digital and role-playing games. Víctor Tizón, cartoonist and illustrator. Tokyo, cartoonist and scientific illustrator. Aldán López actor, theater director and cultural manager.
In addition, they had the coordination, guidance and advice of Mónica González, CEMMA biologist and Xan Silvar, biologist and coordinator of the Ferrol SGHN.
Activity
The activity consisted of an expository conference on the importance of marine mammals in Galicia, presentation of the basic lines of the project and forecast of the materials to be generated, which will consist of a history of the Bolechas, a special by Carmela Orzán-DMA and several illustrations that will be included in the Salseiro magazine published by CEMMA In addition, activities will be designed to be carried out in workshops that will take place between the second half of 2023 and 2024 between Bidasoa and the Strait of Gibraltar. Once the day is over, the authors will begin their work, which will take place between February and May, before moving on to production and editing.
Generational multidisciplinarity
This pioneering initiative aims to project the importance of marine mammals and the work of conserving the species and the environment in society, so that the information is available and causes a change in attitudes and skills. To this end, a multidisciplinary team was involved, covering illustration, comics and theatrical artistic expression, as well as authors from different generations, from consolidated illustrators of international projection to young illustrators in the digital field.