FOLGEFONNA
2019
HD video 50′ 06”
A piece of glacial ice is placed on an open human palm. The body heat from the hand causes the ice to slowly melt which the video follows in real time until the ice has completely melted. This interaction becomes a meeting of two different elements, but also a confrontation between two very separate time-scales: the human time represented by the hand, and the geological time of the glacial ice. In its familiarity, the palm reflecting human time becomes relatable, small twitches in the hand revealing the physical strain of slowly moving time. The ephemeral piece of ice, however fragile it may seem, contains within itself a much longer timespan, a timescale that has become abstracted. The small air bubbles we see released during the melting process contain air that has been captured inside the ice and held there for roughly 400 years.
23 minutes into the process of filming there was an unplanned electrical cut which has divided the video into two separate scenes, the beginning depicts the infrastructure still functioning and the second half, after the disruption, which shows an improvised situation detached from its surrounding.
Comissioned by Volt
Camera by David A Rios
