The Italian Cultural Institute in Oslo presents White Fades, a contemporary art exhibition dedicated to the aesthetic research of the Italian artist Roberto Ghezzi. The project involves multiple partners in the shared wish to spread and address environmental and ecological issues through the poetic and critical filter of art.
The peculiarity of Roberto Ghezzi’s research is that of producing artistic works by limiting his direct intervention as much as possible. In fact, through a careful preparatory process, he ensures that natural phenomena and elements – such as water, air and ice – leave their traces on different types of fabrics, in an attempt to give voice to nature and let it express freely.
These natural traces collected but not manipulated by the artist, are thus transformed into a sort of sample or report that can also be analyzed scientifically.
The works presented in this exhibition were created by Ghezzi during two artistic residencies in Tassilaq – Greenland (2022) and on the Svalbard Islands – Norway (2023). In both experiences the artist allowed the melting ice itself to mark the canvas, and therefore produce his works. In the first case, the final outcome consisted in a series of cyanotypes; in the second one, it is an edited video filmed by cameras floating on streams of melting ice. Furthermore, the exhibition includes cyanotypes of landscapes documenting the places he crossed, and some notebooks with his notes and sketches.
The exhibition is an opportunity to not only immerse ourselves in the contemplation of artistic works of undoubted aesthetic fascination, but also to reflect on climate change and question ourselves about human actions.
Roberto Ghezzi’s research and projects are supported by the scientific contribution of the CNR-ISP, Italian National Research Council – Institute of Polar Sciences.
Mara Predicatori, curator of Roberto Ghezzi’s Artic projects
On the opening of the exhibition on September 26, there will be a conversation between the artist Roberto Ghezzi and Dr. Fabiana Corami, senior researcher at the Institute of Polar Sciences of the Italian National Research Council, CNR-ISP, who has been following the scientific aspect of Ghezzi’s project.
The exhibition will last until November 15, 2024.
Microplastics, glaciers, and climate change.
What do we know about microplastics? This definition highlights two essential characteristics: the presence of functional additives (plastic additives) and the size range that characterizes the microplastics (5 mm- 1 µm). The issue of the presence of microplastics in polar regions has been addressed by several working groups since the Arctic has become a global research priority. In a recent studies on small microplastics, we observed the occurrence of these particles in three glaciers of the Svalbard Islands, one of which is above the atmospheric boundary layer, meaning that atmospheric transport is the major source of small microplastics. The scientific research widely complements artistic, interpretive, motion picture and other humanities-based representations to expand the dialogue with the citizenship and increase sensitivity to disappearing glaciers and the changing climate. In this frame, the cooperation for the Polar Stream project was born for the artistic residency of Roberto Ghezzi in the Svalbard Islands.
Fabiana Corami, Institute of Polar Sciences, CNR-ISP
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Arrangementet er et initiativ som også er i anledning Den 20. Giornata del Contemporaneo
