Cover Image: Ice Watch by Olafur Eliasson and Minik Rosing, City Hall Square, Copenhage Photo: Anders Sune Berg
Literally.
Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson presented his latest installation art at the publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s 5th Assessment Report on the Climate in Copenhagen where he invites the public to watch the ice melt. Collaborating with Mink Rosing a professor of geology at the Natural History Museum, Copenhagen University, Eliasson tranported 100 tonnes of ice from the region of Nuup Kangerlua fjord, Greenland with the help of a container ship to Denmark.
Photo: Anders Sune Berg
Photo: Anders Sune Berg
Harvesting ice floating in Nuup Kangerlua, Greenland Photo: Group Greenland
The tweleve blocks of ice was then displayed in a clock formation at the Copenhagen City Hall Square. A physical wake up call, the ice melts On Sunday, twelve large blocks of ice, collected from a fjord outside Nuuk, Greenland, will arrive at Copenhagen’s City Hall Square. The ice, displayed in clock formation, is a physical wake-up call, a distress call sent out by our environment. Climate change is real. Temperatures are rising, the ice is melting and the sea levels are rising.
Photo: Anders Sune Berg
Photo: Anders Sune Berg
Photo: Anders Sune Berg
Photo: Anders Sune Berg
But at the same time, I feel Eliasson’s work is taking upon a cynical approach. As the audience come together and watch the public execution of the ice blocks, what is left is only small chunks of ice, water from the melted ice and perception of what used to be there.
Do check out our previous post here on another installation art piece by Eliasson where he installed a massive riverbed in a museum.