Cubo luminoso, Gran Guacamayo precolombino, El templo de las luciernagas

(left) Cubo luminoso, electronic installation, Projekt Geldmacher-Mariotti, Documenta IV, Kassel, Germany, 1968. (Photo: Wolf Spemann) (center) Gran Guacamayo precolombino, electronic installation, Gran Premio Cittá di Locarno XIII Festival Videoart de Locarno, 1992. (Software: Manuel Rodriguez, Chile. Photo: Georg Stärk.) (right) El templo de las luciérnagas (The Temple of Fireflies), electronic installation, Museo de Arte de Lima, 1996. (Photo: Tachy Lay) (All works © Francesco Mariotti)

When I was 13, during the summer holiday I went to the jungle, in Tingo Maria, where one of my classmate's parents, who were of Swiss origin, had coffee plantations. In Perú, summer starts in the month of December. For Christmas, my parents gave me a rifle. I remember that one day I went out alone into the hills with my rifle. In the immense greenery surrounding me I discovered a small, colorful bird. I approached as closely as I could, I aimed and I shot. I felt as if the whole universe trembled in that moment. The small bird disintegrated in tiny particles of multicolored feathers. I had made a mistake that day that I have repented ever after. I am not sure if it is due to that day and because of that shooting, but I have an infinite debt towards beauty and harmony—which at that moment I did not recognize—and I also have an enormous suspicion of human nature and technologies. The paradox is that I use technological products in my artwork.