Montiel-1985 - "FÓSIL VIVIENTE"

This work explores the tension between the fragility of matter and the persistence of essence. The figure of the fish appears open, revealing not only its internal structure but also a heart that defies anatomical logic to become a symbol. Where there should be only biological mechanics, the emotional center emerges, the vital memory that survives the wear of time.
The body, reduced almost to a fossil, evokes the imprint of what once was. Its eroded forms remind us that all existence is subject to processes of transformation, loss, and change. Yet the heart remains intact, vibrant and luminous, as a force that resists ceasing to exist. It is the metaphor of that which stays alive beyond physical appearance: identity, affections, memory, and spirit.
The work establishes a dialogue between life and death, between permanence and disappearance. The fish, an ancient inhabitant of the depths, becomes here a witness to geological and human time. Its skeleton speaks of the past; its heart of the continuous present of emotion. Together they build an image where vulnerability is not synonymous with weakness, but with truth.
The blue background, vast and silent, alludes to the ocean as origin and archive of life. In that suspended space, the creature seems to float between two states: relic and organism, memory and presence. Thus, Living Fossil poses an essential question: what is it that really survives when time has consumed the form?
The answer seems to beat at the center of the image. It is not the body that endures, but what gave it meaning. Because even when matter fragments, there exists an invisible force that continues to inhabit the memory of the world. There, where the fossil ends, inner life begins.