40,000 Years

Avatar is celebrating its 20th anniversary. For the occasion, “The Giraffe” is offering you this collective digital publication, which brings together—like an instant snapshot taken at a precise moment in its trajectory—the contributions of forty-nine artists, authors, collaborators and friends. The collection comprises a wide range of initiatives, testimony to the multiple disciplinary crossovers that characterize the organization. In this sense, sound art and electronic art can be seen not so much as disciplines, but as ways of constructing and reflecting upon the world, of seeing it, hearing it, desiring and engaging with it. 


Ideas, projects and collaborations are what fuel Avatar, and it is therefore the artists themselves who are being celebrated here, for it is they who set everything in motion. They were asked to contribute to this publication with no pre-established theme in mind: the project was intended to be as exploratory and free in its content as in its form—that of the electronic book.


This publication is symbolic for Avatar, similar to the Golden Records carried aboard the Voyager spacecraft, for humanity. It sends out a signal. Although it is impossible to summarize a human or artistic adventure with a few key artefacts, we can say that in the case of both interstellar travel and Avatar, it is improbable circumstances, bold actions and productive collaborations that have allowed the most incredible dreams to be realized.


We have learned that Voyager I will be within 1.7 light years of another star in about 40,000 years. Between 20 and 40,000 years, past and future merge. Is there a real difference? More amazing still, this first star outside the solar system, at the limits of the sun’s magnetic field, is part of the Camelopardus constellation, commonly known as… the Giraffe!


For the Avatar team, this special 20th anniversary publication is also a group of objects that sparkle within a constellation. Together, the 49 contributions reflect a measureless universe: art. 40,000 years and the giraffe is still kicking! We wish you many beautiful surprises and discoveries during your explorations of this infinite world of possibilities!