Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1276949
11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 AUGUST 2020 CULTURE NATURE Considering our sea-dominated geography, it's no surprise that our breeding birds include a few seabirds too, and one of these is the Scopoli's shearwater. Shearwaters are large gull-like birds, and like their enormous seafarer cousins the albatrosses, they spend most of their long life at sea. But to raise a family they must of course come ashore, and in Malta they nest in cracks in the vertical cliffs that grace half our shoreline. Thousands of Scopoli's shearwaters (M. Ciefa) breed in Malta, but they don't come milling noisily around harbours the way the extrovert gulls do. Shearwaters are shy birds and only come ashore at night. But they can be noisy too, wonderfully noisy! If you care to experience a concert of shearwaters, take a summery evening, find a quiet, dark, cliffy place (like Wied iz-Zurrieq, Ghar Hasan, Ta' Cenc, etc.), sit and listen. If the air around you starts to fill with eerie baby-like wails, there's your shearwater sonata. Text: Victor Falzon Photo: Ian Balzan 723. SCOPOLI'S SHEARWATER Visit Friends of the Earth's website for more information about our work, as well as for information about how to join us. You can also support us by sending us a donation - www.foemalta.org/donate GREEN IDEA OF THE WEEK 616 Find out more and try our caramelised bambinella salad : www.foemalta.org/fab/bambinella/ What's in season - August The bambinella is a Maltese cultivar of the Pyrus communis. This bite-size pear, with its reddish hue, is a delightful addition to the selection of fruit harvested locally in the months of July and August. These little ones were so popular that they were being exported to the UK in 2009 where they were being sold at Marks & Spencer in London. Luckily there are still plenty of Bambinella on the local markets for us to enjoy locally. Try out the recipe on our website! IN the physical galleries, the rule is always the same: time follows space. A display is created based on the physical space, and the time of the visit will be reliant on the visitors' attention span for the different artworks and determined by the viewing conditions provided. The Eye of the Storm is Blitz Valletta's first on- line exhibition featuring videos and films by sev- en international artists and collectives invited to rethink and share their artworks in response to changes due to the pandemic. For their first online exhibition, Blitz Vallet- ta have decided to prioritise time, whereby the artworks will be experienced in a sequence that collectively draws the viewer inward to a full co- herence of the project. From June 3, one artwork is available month- ly until December, when the last work will be revealed and all previously shown works made equally available. Throughout August, Blitz Valletta is exhibit- ing Jonathas De Andrade's 'O Peixe / The Fish (2016)', curated by Sara Dolfi Agostini. De Andrade wears many hats. For him, be- ing an artist means undertaking different roles, from the historian to the photographer, from the anthropologist to the filmmaker. However, his chameleonic identity is substan- tially grounded in the Northeast of Brazil, be- tween Maceio and Recife, where he was born and where he lives today. Its urban landscape, once the hub of tropical Modernism, shows the dramatic signs of the failure of post-colonial utopia aimed at social equality. De Andrade seeks to chart some of those fault lines to focus attention on the dispossessed, the communities that are left out of the democratic process, whose lives are not covered by official history books, but are still heavily affected by socioeconomic despair and the power dynamics inherent in every society. His explorations are imbued with different styles and materials. In fact, for De Andrade articulating fact and fiction into composite narratives with compet- ing language and visuals allows for a more hon- est, ethical representation of the polyphonic na- ture of reality. His practice also extends to institutional cri- tique, through Museu do Homem do Nordeste (Museum of the Man of the Northeast), a work in progress dedicated to rethinking the epon- ymous museum in Recife and constructing a more inclusive national identity for the periph- eral region of northeastern Brazil. The Eye of the Storm will close at the end of the year, a symbolic date because that is when a collective attitude towards contemplating what everyone is leaving behind emerges, together with confidence for new beginnings. Wherever one will be then, as everyone takes it day by day in respect of fast-changing regu- lations, Blitz Valletta hopes that The Eye of the Storm will provide food for thought as we pro- gress into the unknown. The Eye of the Storm online exhibition highlights Jonathas De Andrade