Mo Ganji: Western Chimpanzee | Westlicher Schimpanse | Pan troglodytes verus | No. 237/250 from work group 8/99

Western Chimpanzee | Westlicher Schimpanse | Pan troglodytes verus

Mo Ganji turns toward the Western chimpanzee — a highly social great ape inhabiting forests, savannas and woodland mosaics of West Africa — by letting the single line move toward essence rather than intelligence or kinship. The line condenses the being into a reduced coherence, setting aside gesture, expression and resemblance so that presence can surface without narrative. In Ganji’s understanding, the line does not belong to the chimpanzee alone; it remains open, reminding us that every form is also a human concept provisionally placed upon a living continuum.

Pan troglodytes verus is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List. Once widespread across much of West Africa, the subspecies has experienced severe population declines due to habitat loss and direct exploitation. Remaining populations are fragmented and often isolated within shrinking forest landscapes across countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The principal threats include deforestation from agriculture and mining, hunting for bushmeat, illegal wildlife trade, disease transmission from humans, and conflict arising from increasing overlap with human settlements. Because Western chimpanzees have slow reproductive rates and depend on complex social structures, population recovery is extremely limited once disruption occurs.

Ganji’s single line opens a space in which the chimpanzee can be encountered beyond familiarity or reflection. It allows the being to be perceived as a life parallel rather than adjacent to our own, suggesting how the illusion of separation between humans and other beings contributes to loss — not because difference is ignored, but because shared dependence on the same fragile ground is too often denied.