With her exhibition Melting Mountains, Berlin-based artist Theresa Schubert invites visitors to cultivate a new sensitivity towards the intersection of art and science. The Glacier Trilogy (2022) focuses on glaciers and the melting of glaciers as starting points of fluvial systems. Glaciers hold an extreme importance not only as storages of water but also as a memory of the earth’s past and as indicators of climate change. Glacial ice archives millennia-old (an)organic information, such as microorganisms, pollen, organic remains, and atmospheric dust, allowing scientists to acquire knowledge about ancient ecosystems and to predict future climate change.

During her residency at Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto and through an arts & science collaboration within the START4Water programme, Theresa Schubert investigated these fluvial systems in the Piemont area in North-West Italy and started to develop The Glacier Trilogy. Schubert looked/listened and responded with various media technologies to the signals that the environment in the Western Italian Alps produce. Combining advanced computational technologies (such as generative adversarial networks, atmospheric sensors or realtime ice-fluid simulation for 8K) with sculpture materials, the works increase awareness of the fragility of the environment and the transformations due to climate change, stimulating an emotional engagement of the audience. The trio of works that make up The Glacier Trilogy are now shown together for the first time at Meinblau in Berlin, accompanied by an extended supporting programme.

PART 1: A SYNTHETIC ARCHIVE
The first work of the trilogy shows mountain landscapes with glaciers slowly unfolding from abstract images. The boundaries between reality and fiction, past and future, nature and artificiality are blurred. These landscapes do not exist in reality; they have been generated by an AI, based on archive material. Canadian tenor Joseph Schnurr improvised a soundtrack to complement the visuals. Within Schubert’s own composition, the audio recording serves as a musical counterpart to the process of transformation.

PART 2: EARTH MEMORY
The second work consists of hand-blown glass sculptures suspended from the ceiling, each containing ancient water extracted from melted glacier cores. This primal water, some tens of thousands of years old, is carefully preserved in a closed system and serves as a miniature memorial to the inherent transience of life.

PART 3: SIMULATING GLACIAL WATER SYSTEMS
The panoramic video sculpture simulates the formation and melting of glaciers in real time. Visitors unwittingly become part of the process: CO2 sensors register their exhalations and accelerate the simulated melting of the glaciers. Through the unique combination of human creativity, advanced computer technologies, sculptural materials and scientific research, Theresa Schubert encourages the audience to engage in an intense dialogue.

The work was created in collaboration with programmer and artist Sage Jenson.