Street Sculpture Route II: 02. The Bird Eater

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Route · Subcategory: Street sculpture II · Year: 1974 · Authors: Christian Silvain

This sculpture, although made in 1974, was part of the II International Street Sculpture Exhibition in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, held in 1994 on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the city's foundation. It is the work of the Belgian artist Christian Silvain, an author who has never wanted to identify with any art movement, although he is a creator whose vitality and interests (music, theatre, painting, etc.) have a trajectory closely linked to the most avant-garde movements and cultural centres in Europe, with a clear surrealist influence marked by Salvador Dalí.

Bird Eater is a piece made of a metal sheet painted blue and cut out in the shape of a human silhouette, like a cartoon, on which white childlike graphics can be seen. At the bottom there are two wheels and at the top a series of holes with irregular shapes representing the eyes, nose and mouth, as well as a twisted iron that forms the hair. It is very simple, as is its execution which is very schematic, but fundamentally it develops complicated emotional mechanisms of human personality, related to the particular interest the artist has in psychiatry and child psychology. It must be seen from the front, because it only has two dimensions, and for this reason, its author commented during his visit to the Viera y Clavijo Cultural Park in 1994, the place where it was originally located, that the work should be placed in a place with a background, and what better background than the trees of the park, true sculptures of nature.

The work remained in this location until the end of 2012, when it was removed in a state of great deterioration. Months later and after a rigorous restoration, it was placed in the children's area of the Municipal Library based at the TEA.

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