The glacier melt series 1999/2019, 2019
Olafur Eliasson
Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los
Angeles © 2019 Olafur Eliasson | Photo: Michael Waldrep/Studio Olafur Eliasson
Angeles © 2019 Olafur Eliasson | Photo: Michael Waldrep/Studio Olafur Eliasson
Collection
Loans
30 chromogenic color prints
226.6 x 478 cm
In 1999, Olafur Eliasson photographed several dozen glaciers in Iceland as part of his ongoing project of surveying and mapping the island. This series of photographs formed a work called The glacier series. Twenty years later, he returned to Iceland to catalog the glaciers again. This new work, The glacier melt series 1999/2019, collates the thirty pairs of images from 1999 with those from 2019 to reveal the dramatic impact that global heating has already had on the planet and how it will affect future generations.
"In 1999 I traveled to Iceland to document a number of the country’s glaciers from the air. Back then, I thought of the glaciers as beyond human influence. They were awe-inspiring and exhilaratingly beautiful. They seemed immobile, eternal. I was struck at the time by the difference between the human scale and the scale of geo-history. For me a glacier or a rock seem solid, but on the geological scale, rocks and glaciers are constantly in motion. This summer, twenty years later, I went back to photograph the same glaciers from the same angle and at the same distance. Flying over the glaciers again, I was shocked to see the difference. Of course, I know that global heating means melting ice and I expected the glaciers to have changed, but I simply could not imagine the extent of change. All have shrunk considerably and some are even difficult to find again. Clearly this should not be the case, since glacial ice does not melt and reform each year, like sea ice. Once a glacier melts, it is gone. Forever. It was only in seeing the difference between then and now – a mere twenty years later – that I came to fully understand what is happening. The photos make the consequences of human actions on the environment vividly real. They make the consequences felt. This August, I joined a group of people to commemorate the passing of Okjökull, the first glacier in Iceland to vanish entirely as a result of human activity. It was a humbling experience. A plaque laid at the site bears an inscription, drafted by the Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason, that poses a question to future generations: ‘We know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.’ I hope that we have now reached a turning point. We have a responsibility towards future generations to protect our remaining glaciers and to halt the progress of global heating. Every glacier lost reflects our inaction. Every glacier saved will be a testament to the action taken in the face of the climate emergency. One day, instead of mourning the loss of more glaciers, we must be able to celebrate their survival."
–Olafur Eliasson
PAST LOANS
Group exhibition: Abundant Futures
Venue: C3A Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Córdoba
Curator: Daniela Zyman
April 1, 2022 - March 5, 2023
226.6 x 478 cm
In 1999, Olafur Eliasson photographed several dozen glaciers in Iceland as part of his ongoing project of surveying and mapping the island. This series of photographs formed a work called The glacier series. Twenty years later, he returned to Iceland to catalog the glaciers again. This new work, The glacier melt series 1999/2019, collates the thirty pairs of images from 1999 with those from 2019 to reveal the dramatic impact that global heating has already had on the planet and how it will affect future generations.
"In 1999 I traveled to Iceland to document a number of the country’s glaciers from the air. Back then, I thought of the glaciers as beyond human influence. They were awe-inspiring and exhilaratingly beautiful. They seemed immobile, eternal. I was struck at the time by the difference between the human scale and the scale of geo-history. For me a glacier or a rock seem solid, but on the geological scale, rocks and glaciers are constantly in motion. This summer, twenty years later, I went back to photograph the same glaciers from the same angle and at the same distance. Flying over the glaciers again, I was shocked to see the difference. Of course, I know that global heating means melting ice and I expected the glaciers to have changed, but I simply could not imagine the extent of change. All have shrunk considerably and some are even difficult to find again. Clearly this should not be the case, since glacial ice does not melt and reform each year, like sea ice. Once a glacier melts, it is gone. Forever. It was only in seeing the difference between then and now – a mere twenty years later – that I came to fully understand what is happening. The photos make the consequences of human actions on the environment vividly real. They make the consequences felt. This August, I joined a group of people to commemorate the passing of Okjökull, the first glacier in Iceland to vanish entirely as a result of human activity. It was a humbling experience. A plaque laid at the site bears an inscription, drafted by the Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason, that poses a question to future generations: ‘We know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.’ I hope that we have now reached a turning point. We have a responsibility towards future generations to protect our remaining glaciers and to halt the progress of global heating. Every glacier lost reflects our inaction. Every glacier saved will be a testament to the action taken in the face of the climate emergency. One day, instead of mourning the loss of more glaciers, we must be able to celebrate their survival."
–Olafur Eliasson
PAST LOANS
Group exhibition: Abundant Futures
Venue: C3A Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Córdoba
Curator: Daniela Zyman
April 1, 2022 - March 5, 2023
FIND MORE
The Glacier Melt Series, 1999/2019, Behind the scenes, Studio Olafur Eliasson, video, 2019
Olaur Eliasson and Orri Páll Ormarsson: "I Am Nature Too," Morgunbladid, 2019
Philip Steinberg. Fluid Territories, part of the Ocean / Uni's Spring Semester 2021 fifth session Fluid Territories.
Andri Snær Magnason, "The glaciers of Iceland seemed eternal. Now a country mourns their loss, The Guardian," 2019
Jaimey Hamilton Faris, "Sisters of Ocean and Ice: On the Hydro-feminism of Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner and Aka Niviâna’s Rise: From One Island to Another," Shima Journal, 2019, on ocean-archive.org
Carlos Manuel Duarte, Dangerous climate change in the Arctic: Why should we care?, video documentation, part of the public program of Territorial Agency: Oceans in Transformation, curated by Daniela Zyman, TBA21–Academy, 2020, on ocean-archive.org
Alexandra Boghosian, "The disappearing cryosphere," video documentation, the public program of Territorial Agency: Oceans in Transformation, curated by Daniela Zyman, TBA21–Academy, 2020, on ocean-archive.org
Olaur Eliasson and Orri Páll Ormarsson: "I Am Nature Too," Morgunbladid, 2019
Philip Steinberg. Fluid Territories, part of the Ocean / Uni's Spring Semester 2021 fifth session Fluid Territories.
Andri Snær Magnason, "The glaciers of Iceland seemed eternal. Now a country mourns their loss, The Guardian," 2019
Jaimey Hamilton Faris, "Sisters of Ocean and Ice: On the Hydro-feminism of Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner and Aka Niviâna’s Rise: From One Island to Another," Shima Journal, 2019, on ocean-archive.org
Carlos Manuel Duarte, Dangerous climate change in the Arctic: Why should we care?, video documentation, part of the public program of Territorial Agency: Oceans in Transformation, curated by Daniela Zyman, TBA21–Academy, 2020, on ocean-archive.org
Alexandra Boghosian, "The disappearing cryosphere," video documentation, the public program of Territorial Agency: Oceans in Transformation, curated by Daniela Zyman, TBA21–Academy, 2020, on ocean-archive.org
Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1967. Lives in Copenhagen and Berlin, Germany.