Exhibitions
The hidden heartbeat of the Earth according to Alexandre Estrela
The boundary between art, science, and perception blurs once again in the work of Portuguese artist Alexandre Estrela. With RedSkyFalls (Aftershock) , the artist presents an installation that transforms an invisible, planet-wide phenomenon—Earth's seismic activity—into a sensory experience that invites reflection on our relationship with a planet in constant motion.
The piece is part of the RedSkyFalls project, Portugal's proposal for the 61st Venice Biennale, and arrives at the Lima Art Museum (MALI) as one of the reproductions or "Replicas" conceived by the artist to extend the reach of the original installation beyond the Venetian pavilion.
These "Replicas" function as a unique network of sentinels distributed across various international institutions. Integrated into slots on aluminum plates, the luminous structures resemble hybrid organisms, poised between the biological and the technological. Their movements are not arbitrary: they reproduce patterns inspired by animal behavior, from the pulse of a fly's leg to the undulation of a fish larva's tail or the segmented contraction of an earthworm. The result is a kinetic language that evokes ancestral life forms and an almost instinctive sensibility.
However, the true conceptual core of the work lies in its direct relationship with the planet's geological activity. Although located far from the original RedSkyFalls site, these "Replicas" remain connected to real-time seismic data. When an earthquake or aftershock occurs anywhere in the world, the installation enters a state of absolute immobility. Only when the tectonic disturbance ceases does it slowly resume its usual movement, as if responding to a primitive perceptual mechanism that predates any scientific explanation.
With this gesture, Estrela transforms silence and stillness into a way of visualizing forces that normally remain hidden. The work does not represent earthquakes; it incorporates them into its very nature, establishing an ongoing dialogue between geological processes, animal life, and contemporary technology.
The presence of RedSkyFalls (Aftershock) in Lima is the result of a collaboration between the Portuguese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and an international network of partner institutions, including the Lima Art Museum (MALI), the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco, REDCAT – Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater in Los Angeles, the University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC) at UNAM in Mexico City, and Galeria Zé dos Bois in Lisbon. This constellation of venues extends the project beyond the Venice exhibition space, transforming each installation into a node within a single, globally distributed artistic network.
At MALI, the piece will remain on display until October 18, 2026, located in front of room 26 of the permanent collection, on the museum's second floor. There, it coexists with historical works of Peruvian heritage while maintaining an invisible connection with the planet's movements, reminding us that the Earth never ceases to transform and that contemporary art can make perceptible those forces that escape our everyday perception.
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