“Insects – Artistic Considerations” – Biodiversity Gallery – Centro Ciência Viva of the Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Porto – 2023

They balance, hide among the foliage, or launch “waves of fire”. The artistic proposals are diverse, as are the survival strategies of the insects. National and international artists were invited to present works on the subject of biodiversity, having as their main source of inspiration a very specific population: insects. And so the “Insects – Artistic Considerations” was born, the title of the contemporary art exhibition that was open to the public from the 8th of May until the 15th July, at the Biodiversity Gallery – Centro Ciência Viva of the Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Porto (at the Campo Alegre), an initiative included in the 5th International Biennial Art Gaia 2023 | Biennial of Causes. The deafening silence of tightrope walkers.

With difficulty, three insects balance on top of a wire tied between the domes of two buildings. They are equilibrists, the Argentine artist called them. Juan Ricardo Nordlinger presented the fragile “balance of insects” that do the “impossible for not to fall into a world that tends towards their disappearance”. On a daily basis, they face “pollution, habitat changes, pesticides, lack of water and global warming”. On top of the threatening wire, are the insects, so often forgotten, and with them the fragility of our own survival.