Alexandre Estrela to Present 'RedSkyFalls' at Portugal's Venice Biennale Pavilion

Portuguese artist Alexandre Estrela will represent Portugal at the 61st Venice Biennale with a multichannel installation titled 'RedSkyFalls'. The work features six small suspended metallic screens engraved with drawings, onto which animated figures are projected as holograms in an artificial ecosystem. These figures move according to animal behavioral patterns and freeze in response to real seismic events registered globally, reacting to earthquakes. The project originated when Estrela discovered that data from the US Geological Survey had been discontinued due to climate change denial, prompting him to find new agencies and routes. The Portugal Pavilion is located at the Fondaco Marcello. The Biennale, themed 'In Minor Keys', runs from 9 May to 22 November 2026. Estrela describes the screens as prescient animations tuned to the world's activity, registering what passes below human perception, and notes that the beings live in a minor key in the geological sense. He views representing a country as a way to make cultural particularities legible as local forms of thought resisting globalization. The interview was part of ArtReview's series of questionnaires to artists and curators at the Biennale, in partnership with Versace.