THE FLIGHT OF THE CONDOR

Half a century ago I set foot on the red soil of Latin-America for the first time. Vultures were hovering up in the sky. The symbol was appropriate for the Red Cuba where the Great Bear is upside down just above the black horizon. Later, shooting documentaries in the other South-American countires, I got to know that those nice gliders up there are the condors. In Brazil, Peru, Argentina, you see no Great Bear in the skies nor Polaris. Down from the equator, the black blanket of stars is circling around the Southern Cross and the Sun rises from the evening sky, setting to the East. The people in South America are a lot sunnier than us, here in Europe, gnarled by the World Wars…
I’ve seen the condors above the volcanoes guarding Antigua as well as the Christ blessing Rio in Brasil. The peoples of Latin-America are joined by two melodies – Glory-Glory Hallelujah and The Flight of the Condor. The latter is played by every piper and the first one is sung by children as well as old people.
Every one of the artworks on this exhibition has its story. The blankets I have brought from my trips to South America, the paintings are from the artists who have participated in our MAN AND WOMAN nude art exhibitions and been here, in Pärnu personally. The Puerto Rican Martin Garcia Rivera’s woodcuts are a gift to The Museum of New Art from 1996. We met him first at the Sao Paolo Biennale in 1994 and our friendship is almost 30 years old now. We hope that the artist will arrive in Pärnu with their new artworks next summer. Who else should we ask to the XXX nude art exhibition MAN AND WOMAN but the one who set the cornestone for our museum!

Mark Soosaar