Mo Ganji: Atlas Bear | Atlasbär | Ursus arctos crowtheri | No. EX 001/012 from work group 8/99

Atlas Bear | Atlasbär | Ursus arctos crowtheri (Extinct)

Mo Ganji turns toward the Atlas bear — a large terrestrial mammal once inhabiting the forested and mountainous regions of North Africa — by letting the single line move toward essence rather than strength or historical presence. The line condenses the being into a reduced coherence, setting aside size, fur and dominance so that presence can surface without depiction. In Ganji’s understanding, the line does not belong to the bear alone; it remains open, reminding us that every form is also a human concept provisionally placed upon a living continuum.

Ursus arctos crowtheri is listed as Extinct (EX) on the IUCN Red List. The Atlas bear, a North African subspecies of the brown bear, once ranged across the Atlas Mountains in what is now Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. It is believed to have disappeared in antiquity, likely during Roman times or shortly thereafter.

The principal causes of extinction include intensive hunting for sport and spectacle, capture for Roman arenas, and habitat degradation driven by human settlement and land use. As forests were cleared and bears were systematically eliminated, the ecological conditions required for survival vanished entirely. No wild populations persisted into the modern era.

Ganji’s single line opens a space in which the bear can be encountered beyond historical loss or legend. It allows the being to be perceived as a former presence embedded in place, suggesting how extinction does not only remove a species, but erases a relationship between land and life — leaving behind a silence that reshapes how landscapes are inhabited long after the last individual is gone.