Installation. 20 mts x 6,5 mts. x 2,80 mts.
Drawings, maquettes, diorama, map, textsYear 2009 – II Bienal del Fin del Mundo. Ex-Penitentiary of Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Pavilion II. Ground Floor. Hall I
Photography: Carla Barbero
A silent and constant modification of the landscape takes place in the heart of the Tierra del Fuego forest, expanding at a vertiginous pace. The beavers advance and the trees recede. Introduced in Tierra del Fuego by the Navy in 1946 to foment the fur business, the beavers, with no enemies in sight (neither bears nor wolves) multiplied rapidly. Broad tracts of forest are being replaced by wetlands and dry trees. Incredible architects, they do no more than construct their homes: the dam with their lodge in the middle, surrounded by a great lagoon, uselessly repeating their defense mechanisms. An enigmatic and pallid beauty envelops the beavers’ land in mystery.
The narrative begins with a series of murals in an apocalyptic tone regarding the beavers’ delirious expansion. The museum doesn’t focus on the past now. The museum becomes prophetic. In the second chapter, a project to counter-arrest the scourge is exhibited: the transformation of the Ex-Penitentiary of Ushuaia into a Prison Colony for Beavers.
