La trilogie des glaciers

This series of three short films examines the evolution of glacial zones in Switzerland, and calls attention to our complex relationships with the natural world. It encourages us to consider ecological futures where states of hybridity, vulnerability and the sublime are intertwined.   

The central focus of this trilogy is the Rhône glacier in the Swiss Alps. With an altitude of 3,600 meters, this glacier has, since the end of the 19th century, become both an object of scientific study and a significant popular tourist destination. In an eloquent indication of its anticipated disappearance, part of the glacier’s ablation zone, which is subject to melting, has been covered in geotextile mosaics to protect it from solar radiation. While these reflective coverings can help to slow the acceleration of glacial retreat, this practice nevertheless remains contested by scientists. The draping of these blankets creates an enigmatic setting, evocative of shrouds, or temporary refuges, and represent a man-made attempt to control the landscape in a context of climate change. Fragile Monument, an immersive work of image and sound, explores the temporal scales of the glacier, the water, and the mineral environment, and their interconnectedness with human rhythms.

Albedo offers a visual foray into research on the Rhône glacier at ETH Zurich. Researchers use technical tools to produce reports as part of their surveillance of the glacier, whose fissures and signs of sinking are tangible. The images are accompanied by a scientific explanation of the albedo effect: the unit of measurement for a (snow covered) surface’s capacity to reflect the sun’s rays and protect the ice from melting. The feedback loops initiated by climate change upset the glaciers’ precarious equilibrium, as their skin is extremely sensitive. Observed, studied, and draped, the Rhône glacier is presented as a climate hyper-object, a ‘quasi-artifact whose sublime aura is now overshadowed by the vertiginous reality that it is disappearing’. 1

In the final chapter of the trilogy, In the Wake of Glaciers, scientific researcher and glaciologist Jean-Baptiste Bosson shares his expertise. Bosson campaigns for the protection of glaciers and glaciated margins from the perspective of the ecosystem, removed from an anthropocentric point of view. In this film, the gaze extends to different alpine zones in Switzerland that are exposed to glacial receding. Because of this phenomenon, untouched environments have begun to emerge from the ice, prompting a consideration for their protection as potential havens of biodiversity. Against a backdrop of macroscopic shots of air bubbles trapped in the ice, like live archives giving a sense of the glacier’s age, Bosson asserts that the glaciers are sensitive objects that allow us to better understand the history of the climate.

This trilogy was made under the La Becque Principal Residency Program (Switzerland) in 2021-22, with the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. It is part of an evolving body of work entitled Radiant Mountain, which, through exhibitions, photographs and videos, explores various imaginings and interpretations of the mountain, encompassing landscape transformations, technological installations, and therapeutic qualities related to the legacy of modernity in the alpine environment.

‘Beyond its monolithic presence, the mountain is a complex hyperobject whose impact reverberates across multiple planes. Structured as a series of interlinked chapters, this project explores the myriad facets of our anthropic engagement with mountains. Nature, technology, architecture, history, hydrology, geomorphology, health, spirituality and wellness intertwine in a heterochrony that brings together human, glaciological and geological time frames.’ 2