Cultural
ANTARCTIC RESOLUTION
Fondazione Kenta, Milan, 2021
Fondazione Kenta invites UNLESS to contribute officially to Pre-COP with a Collateral Event event promoted by All4Climate dedicated to “Antarctic Resolution”.
The exhibition design for the presentation of “Antarctic Resolution” within the spaces of Fondazione Kenta focuses on the work by four acclaimed artists, whose critical photographic portfolios (featured extensively in the volume) offer insights on the natural and political forces covertly at play in 26 quadrillion tons of ice.
The accelerated thinning of the Antarctic ice cap induced by anthropogenic global warming, and the impending menace that it represents to global coastal settlements threatened by a potential rise in sea level of 60 meters, is revealed by the aerial photographs taken by Paolo Pellegrin during NASA’s Operation IceBridge, in 2019. While Pellegrin records the alarming metamorphosis of the southernmost cryosphere at territorial scale, Spencer Lowell forensic work zooms into the depths of the ice sheet, revealing the unparalleled potential of ice to act as a repository of data on the history of the world’s climate. Far from being purely the pristine natural landscape depicted by Pellegrin and Lowell, the continent is a contested territory. The proliferation of national research stations observed in recent decades leave contaminating traces of an expanding anthropic footprint on the continent. Such traces were recorded by the work of Anne Noble and Shaun O’Boyle. Whilst the provocative photographs by Anne Noble on “Piss Poles” and “Fuel Bladders” document individual and systemic contamination sources, Shaun O’Boyle’s work investigates the polar built environment from the scale of the single scientific station to that of vast informal settlements such as the logistic hub of McMurdo.
Download Press Release here
Photo Credits © Delfino Sisto Legnani
The exhibition design for the presentation of “Antarctic Resolution” within the spaces of Fondazione Kenta focuses on the work by four acclaimed artists, whose critical photographic portfolios (featured extensively in the volume) offer insights on the natural and political forces covertly at play in 26 quadrillion tons of ice.
The accelerated thinning of the Antarctic ice cap induced by anthropogenic global warming, and the impending menace that it represents to global coastal settlements threatened by a potential rise in sea level of 60 meters, is revealed by the aerial photographs taken by Paolo Pellegrin during NASA’s Operation IceBridge, in 2019. While Pellegrin records the alarming metamorphosis of the southernmost cryosphere at territorial scale, Spencer Lowell forensic work zooms into the depths of the ice sheet, revealing the unparalleled potential of ice to act as a repository of data on the history of the world’s climate. Far from being purely the pristine natural landscape depicted by Pellegrin and Lowell, the continent is a contested territory. The proliferation of national research stations observed in recent decades leave contaminating traces of an expanding anthropic footprint on the continent. Such traces were recorded by the work of Anne Noble and Shaun O’Boyle. Whilst the provocative photographs by Anne Noble on “Piss Poles” and “Fuel Bladders” document individual and systemic contamination sources, Shaun O’Boyle’s work investigates the polar built environment from the scale of the single scientific station to that of vast informal settlements such as the logistic hub of McMurdo.
| Project Title: | Antarctic Resolution |
| Location: | Fondazione Kenta, Milan |
| Year: | 2021 |
| Status: | Completed |
| Programme: | Exhibition |
| Exhibition design: | UNA |
| Team: | Giulia Foscari, Joshua Labarraque and Federica Zambeletti |
| Exhibitors: | UNLESS in collaboration with Shaun O’Boyle, Spencer Lowell, Anne Noble, Paolo Pellegrin |
Download Press Release here
Photo Credits © Delfino Sisto Legnani
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