Opening at Meinblau Berlin with Melting Mountains on April 11

Vernissage: 11 April 2024 | 6pm-10pm

Exhibition: 12 April to 5 May 2024 | Thu-Sun, 2-7pm

Projektraum MEINBLAU, Christinenstrasse 18-19, 10119 Berlin

MELTING MOUNTAINS

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 three works on display address perhaps the most pressing issue of our time: climate change and the resulting melting of glaciers. Schubert offers a unique way of understanding the remarkable and alarming changes taking place in nature.

Previously exhibited individually at BOZAR in Brussels in 2022, the trio of works that make up the ‘Glacier Trilogy’ will now be shown together for the first time at MEINBLAU in Berlin, accompanied by an extended supporting programme.

The project was developed in collaboration with scientists as part of STARTS4Water residency, organised by the European Commission.

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.

SUPPORTING PROGRAMME

Saturday, 27 of April | 5-6pm

In conversation with Ingeborg Reichle

During the Berlin Gallery Weekend, the renowned art historian and curator of contemporary art, Ingeborg Reichle (Research Institute for Sustainability Helmoltz Centre Potsdam), discusses the theme of the exhibition with Theresa Schubert on 27 April at 5pm.

As an expert in modern and contemporary art with a strong focus on the interaction between art, science and ecology, she will provide insight into the contextual framework of the exhibition.

The lecture and discussion will be held in English.

Sunday, 5 May | 5-6.30pm

In conversation with Tobias Sauter and Adnan & Nina Softić

For the finissage on May 5th, the artist welcomes three discussion partners: geologist Tobias Sauter, professor at the Humboldt University in Berlin and expert on glaciers, will provide a comprehensive overview of the scientific background.

The artist duo Adnan & Nina Softić developed the musical instrument “Klimaton” in 2020, which outputs the data of a research expedition to the Arctic as sound and thus draws a large-scale musical portrait of a changing landscape.

The lecture and discussion will be held in English.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Theresa Schubert is a Berlin-based artist who explores unconventional visions of nature, technology and the self. With a PhD in Media Art from the Bauhaus University Weimar, she combines audiovisual and biological media in her artistic practice to create conceptual and immersive installations and performances. In doing so, she repeatedly touches on the boundaries between science and art.

Her works move in an aesthetic sphere between alchemy and science fiction, challenging anthropocentrism while enabling alternative visions and new sensory experiences. Schubert has exhibited internationally,including: Ars Electronica Linz, Art Laboratory Berlin, BOZAR. Centre for Fine Arts Brussels, KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin, Newcastle Art Gallery, Electrofringe Festival Australia, Futurium Berlin, Istanbul Biennial, European Media Art Festival, Kapelica Gallery, Museum Villa Rot, MMOMA Moscow, Perm Museum of Contemporary Art or Zebrastraat Gent.

Her work has been awarded the NTAA (New Technological Art Award) 2016, an Honorary Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica (AI & Life Art 2021) and the Award of Excellence at the Japan Media Arts Festival 2022 (Art Division).

More info at: www.theresaschubert.com | www.meltingmountains.de (online from Monday, 25 March)