Sergio Vega

I traveled to Mato Grosso (central Brazil) in search of paradise. I was following the guidelines set by Leon Pinelo in 1650 when he asserted that the Garden of Eden was in this region. On my arrival I encountered these telephone cabins shaped like parrots. They were designed by a local company to be used with Telemat phones. The company claims that the cabins became parrots to celebrate nature and inspire public awareness of destruction of the rain forest. I decided to bring a group of these parrots to Europe just as Columbus did. The piece is titled Global Warming, given that I envision a tropical future everywhere. In Eden, all animals could talk. After the original sin, language entered history and they lost their mastery of it. Only the parrot retained the capacity of speech. He is the last remaining witness who can speak of a lost world. But the parrot's performance persuades us to place no value on the meaning of signs. His illusory discourse shimmers like a mirage on the outer edge of history that we, who walk inside history, move toward but can never quite reach. Turning language to ashes, his colorful words open the doors to the present, which enters like a wind and blows away the names we have given to things. In the photo I am calling Umberto Eco. I spoke to an answering machine.