Today is World Day for Glaciers – a good reason to take a look behind the scenes at the archeoParc: Together with glaciologist Georg Kaser and artists Jessie Pitt and Daniela Brugger, the archeoParc team is currently preparing an exhibition to mark the International Year of Glaciers‘ Preservation. The opening of ‘Glaciers and Me’ is on 12 April at 6 pm.

Glaciers and Jessie Pitt

For Jessie Pitt, glaciers, mountains and nature in general are the inspiration for her art. After studying art in Melbourne, the freelance artist and ski guide spent years travelling between Australia and Austria before settling in the mountains.

Several of her works focus on the theme of connection, ‘the connection between the self and the mountains, and increasingly the connection between the earth and humanity. Everything is connected. The earth and everything that lives here,’ says Jessie Pitt.

In her picture series ‘Glacier’, Jessie Pitt observes and documents the Ötztal glaciers. She paints her glacier landscapes with a mixed technique of ink, graphite, acrylic and charcoal on canvas. The pictures depict moments that already belong to the past at the time the respective picture was completed. Jessie Pitt’s works in the archeoParc exhibition ‘Glaciers and Me’ are from this series.

Glaciers and Daniela Brugger

Daniela Brugger has long been fascinated by the beauty of the shapes and structures of glaciers. The photographer lives and works in the village of Certosa, where she is also active in the local Senales cultural association and organises the biennial art exhibition ‘Kunst in der Karthause’.

With the aesthetics that glaciers show in their disappearance, she wants to suggest the connection between the disappearance of glaciers as drastic evidence of climate change and human activity in general as the cause of this. The exhibition at archeoParc will feature images from her series ‘Glacier Threads’ and ‘Glaciers are melting 0.32m’. ‘Dying glaciers resemble the furrowed faces of very old people. It is challenging to portray them in their dignity,’ is how Daniela Brugger described the task behind the camera in an interview with the Südtiroler Tageszeitung newspaper.

‘Glacier Threads’ or “Gletschernetze” comprises works in mixed media. Daniela Brugger sews thread onto her photographs of glaciers in the mountains of her childhood. She uses the sewing thread to mark their past extent. The ‘0.32’ series refers to a figure from glacier and climate research: If all glaciers outside the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets were to melt, global sea levels would rise by 0.32 metres. Incidentally, she is one of the winners of the European Photography Award 2024 with a work from the series ‘o.32’.

Glaciers and Georg Kaser

Georg Kaser was and is professionally involved in glacier and climate research. He researched and taught at the University of Innsbruck and is now an emeritus member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.

For ‘Glaciers and Me’, Georg Kaser has packed current data into short, comprehensible sentences that fit in between and complement the artistic works of Jessie Pitt and Daniela Brugger.

The vernissage of ‘Glaciers and Me’ on 12 April at archeoParc

The opening of the exhibition on 12 April will take place at 6 pm in the archeoParc visitor centre. The artists Jessie Pitt and Daniela Brugger, the glaciologist Georg Kaser and representatives of the municipality of Senales and the museum association will be present. The exhibition opening will be accompanied by drinks and music by Sybille Kofler and Hubert Weiss, part of the four-piece band 4sign. The event is open to the public.

Afterwards, the exhibition can be viewed daily during the museum’s opening hours from 10 am to 5 pm.

What do you think of when you think of glaciers?

Feel free to write to us at info@archeoparc.it. We look forward to your thoughts! Incidentally, the curatorial team also asks visitors this question in the exhibition.