Alpina
The artists participated in a scientific expedition to an alpine glacier, the Forni Glacier, located at 2,500 m a.s.l. in Valfurva (Sondrio), to propose a reinterpretation of the anthropocentric views that have, since time immemorial, dominated culture, including scientific culture. Scientists were surveying and sampling microscopic species involved in the metabolic transformations at the base of the food chain that the glacier hosts in the mutation phase, while the artists wanted to reflect on the human impact on the adaptation strategies of living things. In the sound work, we hear recordings of that moment with notes that Ardito Desio wrote in 1926 after his first survey of the same glacier.
The Alpina project, founded by the two artists, (Barbara De Ponti and Fabio Marullo) springs from the encounter of their interests in investigating the water sources just as if they were archives and involves field studies and collaborations with professionals. During its formation, ice can preserve the presence of life unaltered and can unveil it when melting. Thanks to the overflight and the expedition to a glacier (Ghiacciaio dei Forni), Barbara and Fabio could develop their research project tracing the clues and collecting the information about the living beings’ survival, their metamorphosis and their adaptation strategies.