On the occasion of his piece RedSkyFalls, exhibited at the Portuguese Pavilion in Venice at the 2026 Biennale, Alexandre Estrela presents a series of Réplicas. These Réplicas, which function as sentinels, are characterized by their ability to alert to high-risk seismic activity in geographically distant locations.

For Galeria Zé dos Bois, a Réplica was conceived in which fruit flies — or sentinels — respond in real time to nearby and distant seismic activity through a pre-digital sensitivity. Under close observation, we can recognize in the behavior of these artificial sentinels the infrasignals of the subterranean disturbances that, from time to time, erupt within this ecosystem. The sentinel flies, enclosed in logos appropriated from the precursor of the process-poem Wlademir Dias-Pino, wander and react in sync with the seismic activity of planet Earth whenever it registers a tremor.

The network of active Réplicas at partner institutions during the Venice exhibition period includes the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, REDCAT–Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater, the Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI), the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) at UNAM, and Galeria Zé dos Bois.