At the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), a group of researchers led by Francesca Pellicciotti is investigating glaciers that appear to be defying global warming. Together with the artists Céline Ducret (CH), Martin Heynen (CH) and Patrick Hari (CH), the exhibition explores our complicated feelings in times of uncertainty and tells us what it means to experience new facts step by step as the world changes before our eyes.
The exhibition was supported by photographs by Eduardo Soteras (ARG) and Jason Klimatsas (CH/GRC), who accompanied the Pellicciotti team on research trips in the Pamir and Himalayan mountains.
Céline Ducret (1992) reflects in her work on the impact of humans on post-industrial ecosystems and their tangible traces, for which she has developed a research methodology based on her own physical perception of space. Her work encourages us to think about a non-human-centered world shared by many living beings and to explore our relationship with nature over time.
As a researcher and former member of the research group, Martin Heynen incorporates his experiences into his artworks: his installation presents a fragmented narrative of the glacier researchers’ fieldwork and juxtaposes it with the audience’s perspective. He combines artifacts that actually accompanied him on his expeditions with imaginary, reconstructed and exaggerated objects.
The exchange with the Pelicciotti group enabled Patrick Hari to look at the world through their scientific gaze. He created dream-like, philosophical artworks that reflect his thoughts on the past, the future, humanity, technology, nature, the concepts of property and resources.
A ceramic object intended to act as a kind of marker for space and time. And a journey of thought transformed into an installation about human imagination, dreams, fears and intrinsic knowledge.
