The project, curated by Ana Baliza and Ricardo Nicolau, is described as “a cybernetic system that reacts in real-time to global seismic activity, converting it into image and sound,” according to DGArtes in a statement released today.
DGArtes describes Alexandre Estrela’s work as revisiting natural anomalies and beings that foresee geological instabilities, such as the catfish Namazu in Japanese myth. It draws a parallel between the fissure created by the 1755 earthquake in Western thought — which empowered science over religion — and the contemporary erosion of confidence in science, along with blind faith in technology, paving the way for new obscurantist myths.
The installation “RedSkyFAlls” will transform Portugal’s pavilion into a resonant machine of tectonic convulsions, synchronous with distant geophysical events, positioning the visitor within a global ecology, DGArtes explains.
For Venice, the work will be reactivated through data obtained from European counterparts, acquiring a new function as a drive for satellite pieces scattered across the exhibition space.
Apart from Alexandre Estrela’s project, contenders for Portugal’s representation at the Venice Art Biennale included projects by Portuguese artist Pedro Barateiro and Greek-British artist Mikhail Karikis, who resides in Lisbon.
The available budget for participation in Venice is 425,000 euros.
The three projects were selected through an expression of interest call by a working group comprising Andreia Magalhães, Joaquim Moreno, José Bragança de Miranda, and Nuno Faria, who also decided on the winner.
Last year, the Ministry of Culture, then headed by Dalila Rodrigues, announced that the submission process for representing Portugal at the Venice Biennale would transition from invitation-only to an open model accessible to all interested parties starting in 2025.
Apart from changing the selection model to ensure broader participation, the ministry also announced a new location for the Portugal Pavilion, which left the Palazzo Franchetti on the Grand Canal in Venice due to the lease’s end and would return to the Fondaco Marcello, near the Grand Canal.
The upcoming Venice Art Biennale — which will be themed “In Minor Keys” and curated by Koyo Kouoh, who passed away in May this year — will present a transformative vision of art in a “poetic whisper” of resistance, introspection, and joy amid times of global exhaustion, according to the event organizers in Italy.
The exhibition will run from May 9 to November 22, 2026, with pre-opening days on May 7 and 8, in the Gardens, the Arsenale, and other locations in central Venice.
