Mil Passaros at Estufa Fria

Mil Birds is an installation built from a sharing process. A “numerous hand” of children and adults gave birth to birds on their fingertips, which later joined together in a visual and sonorous “mumbling” in tune with the desire for a better world. These paper birds, or cranes, made according to the art of origami are, according to Japanese tradition, a symbol of peace and happiness. And, it is said, desires are fulfilled when a thousand cranes are made.

A thousand birds show the culmination of a work begun in 2019, involving schools and kindergartens, museums, libraries, and families within the scope of the Lisbon European Green Capital 2020, drawing attention to the fragility of the world we live in and the need to take care of of the environment. Give free rein to the imagination. It reveals the strength and beauty of a collective will be based on the power of small gestures. It calls for listening, contemplation, and the desire to build a better world.

After having been a “presence light” in a year marked by the pandemic, the installation is now transfigured by the dialogue with the space and magnificent scenery of the Estufa Quente, one of the gardens that make up the Estufa Fria de Lisboa. The new bio-poetic eco-system is also a manifesto for the “huge desire to hope in these uncertain times”.