USHUAIA, Argentina, April 3 (Reuters) - A giant metal sunflower stands atop a wind-swept hill in the world's southernmost city, an artistic statement gauging and protesting climate change near the ends of the Earth. As icebergs melt and sea levels rise at the north and south poles due to global warming, dozens of artists are installing and performing works in this small Argentine city on the island of Tierra del Fuego to highlight the damage being done. "Sunflower: Sentinel for Climate Change" is just one of the pieces on display here this month at the so-called End of the World Biennial. But with its solar-paneled petals, thermometers and cameras, it is probably the most functional.

"I think all of us should do something" about global warming, said Argentine artist Joaquin Fargas. "The idea of Sunflower is that it becomes an icon, an emblem of the need for all of us to be witnesses to what is happening." In one corner of the main exhibition center, a Canadian group installed a mess of melted ice cream cones, while elsewhere a Paraguayan woman built a crooked stream out of filled drinking glasses. An Argentine woman ran a video, accompanied by the sounds of fierce winds, of a piece called "Methane" performed on the frozen continent of Antarctica. Two people wrap themselves in long blue and red banners, which represent toxic gases.

The month-long art show is meant to complement the International Polar Year, a research drive launched in March by more than 60 countries to study the effect of climate change on animals, people and the polar environment. "Ecological emergencies have a great deal to do with the relationship between the poles and the concept of the end of the world," said Corinne Sacca Abadi, one of the show's curators.

See video of the art projects here: http://www.cctv.com/program/cultureexpress/20070404/100671.shtml

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