SAVE BEES
Footwear, art, and education as a path toward consciousness.
THE ORIGIN
A MOVING CANVAS
"This project stems from a natural encounter between ISR International School on the Rhine and Vesica Piscis, driven by the vision of educators Johanna Henebry and Raphaëlle Dumais, with the purpose of using footwear as a canvas to express, through art, respect for nature."
The students proposed perspectives that invite us to observe life with attention. The work of Yevheniia Kozlenko was chosen for showing the autonomy of bees without idealizing them. Here, art does not decorate: it transforms an everyday product into a message of respect.
THE DESIGN
MEMORY AND RESILIENCE
Yevheniia Kozlenko's artistic proposal arises from a personal transformation: the shift from fear to admiration through the observation of a gentle and effortless relationship with bees. The design places these beings at the center, surrounded by botanical symbolism that invites reflection:
POPPY (Papaver rhoeas)
Its vibrant color symbolizes the strength and energy of life in the face of the threats facing their natural habitats.
FORGET-ME-NOT (Myosotis)
They represent remembrance and the need to keep the reality of bees present in our consciousness.
Through this composition, the footwear becomes a tribute to fragility and, at the same time, to the incalculable importance of those who sustain the biological balance.
BIOCENTRISM: LIFE IN BALANCE
Nature is a fabric where every form of life possesses its own value, independent of any external utility. Bees exist for themselves, and in that existence, they sustain the balance of the ecosystem.
"Pollination is not the bee's job; it is the gift of its existence."
Nothing in nature acts out of obligation. The hive produces for itself: energy, food, and continuity. It does not respond to an external demand, but to its own need to exist.
Balance is not pursued. It happens.
INTERFERE LESS, DON'T DO MORE
Caring for bees does not require heroic actions. It requires stopping the aggression against them with what we consider harmless:
The aerosols we use are chemical noise that cancels out their orientation. The "weeds" we pull are their pantry. The perfect gardens we maintain are biological deserts. The pesticides we normalize disorient them until they cannot find their way home.
The question is not "what do I do for the bees?". It is:
"What harm am I causing them without even realizing it?"
APPLIED BIOMIMICRY
We don't imitate nature's appearance. We imitate its logic
CIRCULAR DESIGN:
Ecosystems function in closed cycles where nothing is lost. We are inspired by that logic to design products that do not generate waste.
HANDMADE TO ORDER:
In nature, no being consumes more resources than it needs. We manufacture by hand only what is demanded.
VEGAN, RECYCLED, AND ORGANIC MATERIALS:
Vegan out of respect for the sovereignty of bees and other species. Recycled and organic for consistency with natural cycles
SOLAR ENERGY FOR SELF-CONSUMPTION:
We manufacture using the same source that allows bees to orient themselves and plants to grow.
"Biomimicry is not just an aesthetic. It's a way of producing, thinking, and living in balance"
