Over Time
MUSE - Palazzo delle Albere, Trento
Curated by Andrea Lerda
2021
Over Time is a three-channel video installation that investigates the relationship
between human beings and the natural environment through a multifocal look at the
theme of snow.
The work is the result of the homonymous project, curated by Andrea Lerda, winner of the 9th edition of the Italian Council (2020), the program for the international promotion of Italian art of the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture and will become part of the permanent collection of the MUSE - Museum of Sciences.
A matter with a mysterious appeal, which seems to belong to an eternal time, snow has always been an attraction for explorers, scientists and artists; an ever-changing substance and at the same time solid memory of the world; a metamorphic element that underlines the transitory nature of our journey on Earth. Starting from the historical seduction that this element exercises on the human soul - its ability to generate beauty, emotions and visions - Over Time explores, updating them, the reasons for our emotional bond and our need to live, study and recreate snow in the time of climate emergencies and global warming.
The narration of Over Time, accompanied by music specially created by the sound artist Magda Drozd, opens on three scenarios.
In the first one, a human figure walks unmoved through a snowy forest. A simulacrum of itself and of all humanity, it is a presence that makes us question our possibilities and our will to coexist harmoniously with the natural world.
In the second one, the images recorded in a factory that produces spray snow document the process of making a product whose purpose is to artificially recreate memories, sensations and emotions related to snowy landscapes and Christmas scenarios. The shots of the laboratory in which the formula for the synthetic snow
is developed and the conveyor belts on which the cans, ready to be sold, run neatly, foresee a future in which snowflakes, those “tiny miracles of beauty” in the words of Wilson Bentley, only survive in our memory.
The sense of anesthesia and suspension that emerges from these two scenarios appears in stark contrast with the attitude of snow scientist Michele Freppaz, who in the third video is engaged in a series of scientific analyses on the snows of Monte Rosa, near the Angelo Mosso Institute, a historic research center for the alpine ecosystem built 2900 meters above sea level. The researcher’s approach to his investigation favors sensory and experiential aspects, presenting the figure of scientists in an unprecedented light, revealing their emotional involvement, in contrast to the conventional imaginary of science that observes and studies the natural world through an analytical and detached lens.
In Over Time, the alarming reference to a possible future without snow acts as a counterpoint to a feeling of empathy towards a fragile and silent universe, an expression of an affective ecology based on a renewed sensitivity to the concept of care and on a new ecophilia with the world.
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Created thanks to the support of the
Italian Council program (9th edition, 2020)
A project developed and produced by
a.titolo
Carried out in collaboration with
MUSE – Science Museum, Trento
DISAFA, Department of Agricultural, Forestry
and Food Sciences of the Università degli Studi di Torino
Fondazione Zegna, Trivero Valdilana
Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella
AGIVERONA Cultural Association, Verona
Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, Torino
Musée Gassendi / CAIRN Centre d’Art, Digne-les-Bains (France)
A Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam (Netherlands)
SÜDPOL, Lucerne (Switzerland)
Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva (Switzerland)
With the support of
Pro Helvetia Swiss art council
Volcke Aerosol Connection
With the patronage of
Comune di Gressoney-La-Trinité
The work is the result of the homonymous project, curated by Andrea Lerda, winner of the 9th edition of the Italian Council (2020), the program for the international promotion of Italian art of the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture and will become part of the permanent collection of the MUSE - Museum of Sciences.
A matter with a mysterious appeal, which seems to belong to an eternal time, snow has always been an attraction for explorers, scientists and artists; an ever-changing substance and at the same time solid memory of the world; a metamorphic element that underlines the transitory nature of our journey on Earth. Starting from the historical seduction that this element exercises on the human soul - its ability to generate beauty, emotions and visions - Over Time explores, updating them, the reasons for our emotional bond and our need to live, study and recreate snow in the time of climate emergencies and global warming.
The narration of Over Time, accompanied by music specially created by the sound artist Magda Drozd, opens on three scenarios.
In the first one, a human figure walks unmoved through a snowy forest. A simulacrum of itself and of all humanity, it is a presence that makes us question our possibilities and our will to coexist harmoniously with the natural world.
In the second one, the images recorded in a factory that produces spray snow document the process of making a product whose purpose is to artificially recreate memories, sensations and emotions related to snowy landscapes and Christmas scenarios. The shots of the laboratory in which the formula for the synthetic snow
is developed and the conveyor belts on which the cans, ready to be sold, run neatly, foresee a future in which snowflakes, those “tiny miracles of beauty” in the words of Wilson Bentley, only survive in our memory.
The sense of anesthesia and suspension that emerges from these two scenarios appears in stark contrast with the attitude of snow scientist Michele Freppaz, who in the third video is engaged in a series of scientific analyses on the snows of Monte Rosa, near the Angelo Mosso Institute, a historic research center for the alpine ecosystem built 2900 meters above sea level. The researcher’s approach to his investigation favors sensory and experiential aspects, presenting the figure of scientists in an unprecedented light, revealing their emotional involvement, in contrast to the conventional imaginary of science that observes and studies the natural world through an analytical and detached lens.
In Over Time, the alarming reference to a possible future without snow acts as a counterpoint to a feeling of empathy towards a fragile and silent universe, an expression of an affective ecology based on a renewed sensitivity to the concept of care and on a new ecophilia with the world.
---
Created thanks to the support of the
Italian Council program (9th edition, 2020)
A project developed and produced by
a.titolo
Carried out in collaboration with
MUSE – Science Museum, Trento
DISAFA, Department of Agricultural, Forestry
and Food Sciences of the Università degli Studi di Torino
Fondazione Zegna, Trivero Valdilana
Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella
AGIVERONA Cultural Association, Verona
Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, Torino
Musée Gassendi / CAIRN Centre d’Art, Digne-les-Bains (France)
A Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam (Netherlands)
SÜDPOL, Lucerne (Switzerland)
Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva (Switzerland)
With the support of
Pro Helvetia Swiss art council
Volcke Aerosol Connection
With the patronage of
Comune di Gressoney-La-Trinité
Copyright © 2022 - Laura Pugno