"The rhinoceros has always been a creature close to me. I have followed with pain, its precarious situation in the world and for this reason I decided to create a work that can testify its beauty and make men aware of the risk of extinction of rhinos in the world - states Li-Jen Shih - "On a spiritual level, my sculpture embodies many thoughts rooted in ancient Chinese culture, while, in style and expression, it represents modernity. Although "King Kong Rhino" is considered an urban sculpture, it is more than this: I have incarnated myself in it, and my spirit will be inherited and carried forward ".

The sculpture of the Rhinoceros of steel, with its armor, exudes a strong air of perseverance different from traditional sculptures. In the horn is a human digital imprint that represents the predatory action of man and recalls the importance of respect due to all animal species on earth.

"King Kong Rhino" before arriving in Venice, was the sculpture chosen as an annual theme at the Shanghai Art Fair in 2011 and was installed in the main square of Kelti International Co in Taipei.

Of the 30 rare species of Rhinoceroses in the world, they support only 5 that live in Asia and Africa. The horn trade is threatening the existence of these animals and its peaceful nature. The so-called "horn war" killed more than half of the rhinos on earth during the increasingly devastating years of helicopters and automatic weapons. In the last 3 years, 1,349 horns have been poached.

Traditional medicine uses the rhinoceros horn powdered to heal fever, epilepsy, malaria, poisoning and abscesses turning it into a valuable material that is worth on the black market is a strong incentive to poaching. In Yemen, on the other hand, the rhino horn is used by the implant of the "Jambiya" handle, the traditional curved dagger. In Vietnam, its powder has become more expensive than cocaine. The new wealth was the best to contribute to the success of 90% of rhinos in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia and to their extinction in 7 other countries.

In March of this year, the last white male rhinoceros of North Africa, a continuation of a degeneration to oxygen and the appearance of numerous diseases, was subjected to euthanasia; so now only the white rhino females of North Africa are left all over the world, putting the breed in serious danger of extinction. (Source: WWF Italia).

This emergency situation has affected some of the most important international activists and VIPs such as Leonardo Di Caprio, Uma Thurman and directed the work of the artist Li-Jen Shih towards the theme of respect for the environment and ecology, making it the main goal of his artistic career, to remind man how his actions reflect on nature.

THE ARTIST - LI JEN SHIH

Li-Jen Shih was born in Changhua County, Taiwan, in 1955, and began his career in China and Taiwan. At the age of forty, following his artistic vocation, he began to create sculptures; among his first creations, the bronze works of art "Naked Female", "Leopard series", "Flocks of Sparrow", "Hourses" and "The Formosan Mountain Dog". Up to be interested in the Rhinoceros and its symbolic power, creating various series of sculptures including the famous "King Kong Rhino" became his representative work.

Li-Jen Shih is a modern artist but strongly connected to tradition, using contemporary language to reveal the ancient traditional subject. The form of "King Kong Rhino" contains elements of futurism and postmodernism, to renew and at the same time relate to the foundations of oriental style and knowledge.

His rhinoceros sculptures are now installed in urban centers of the most important Chinese cities including Taipei, Taichung and southern Taiwan, Beijing, Shanghai and Shandong. Everyone, including children, loves to gather around the rhinos of Li-Jen Shih so much as to give him a nickname: The Rhino Pope, the artist of the rhinos.

He is the first Chinese artist to be invited to the public art Venice Biennial for two consecutive years.

The work will remain on the Sturm belvedere until the end of the exhibition dedicated to Dürer.