Mo Ganji: European Sturgeon | Europäischer Stör | Acipenser sturio | No. 075/250 from work group 8/99

European Sturgeon | Europäischer Stör | Acipenser sturio

Mo Ganji’s single line frames the European sturgeon — a large, long-lived migratory fish with an armored body shaped by ancient river systems — as an act of concentration rather than depiction. The continuous line offers only a restrained indication of form, sufficient to suggest presence while remaining open to multiple readings. By removing what is non-essential, the drawing allows the being to surface before the certainty of classification settles in.

Acipenser sturio is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List. Once widespread across European rivers and coastal waters from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, the species has disappeared from most of its former range. Today, the last natural reproducing population survives primarily in the Gironde–Garonne–Dordogne river system in France.

The main threats include river regulation and dam construction that block migration routes, historical overfishing, habitat degradation, pollution, and the loss of suitable spawning grounds. Although strict protection and reintroduction programs are underway, the sturgeon’s extremely slow maturation and complex life cycle make recovery a long and fragile process.

Ganji’s single line creates a space in which the sturgeon can be encountered beyond its role as an emblem of loss or restoration. It invites reflection on deep time and continuity, reminding us that human interventions often interrupt processes that evolved over millennia — and that recognizing ourselves as part of those same natural flows may be essential to preserving what still remains.