The Intraterrestres
“To plant a seed is the only way to survive”
The concept of the INTRATERRESTRES was born in 2001 on the idea of the Venezuelan artist Cynthia Gamboa, inhabitant of El Paují for more than 20 years and General Director of the foundation and some children of the village.
One touristic season in 2001 she created sculptures of dry roots which she painted for selling. Preparing the place for the exhibition some children of the village offered their help and started to play with the roots. During their playing a question occurred to them: "What is the contrary of extraterrestres?"
The background of this question is the special fame of the Gran Sabana considered to be a mystic region where you can contact extraterrestres or see ufos. Quite a lot of people come here especially for this extraordinary fame. The children of El Paují are grown up with this believe. “If they are roots”, they argued, “they come from the inside of the earth. So they are intraterrestres.”
In this season Cynthia didn´t sell the roots but gave them a useful function: Through buying an intraterrestre the buyer adopts a tree that is planted in the region of reforestation, at the banks of rio Esmeralda in El Paují. The Intraterrestres have a tale and their message is: “To plant a seed is the only way to survive”
