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Olafur Eliasson Brings Colossal Ice Installation To Denmark In The Name Of Climate Change

Olafur Eliasson and Minik Rosing are placing over 100 tons of ice in Copenhagen City Hall Square this Sunday.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's harrowing Fifth Annual Assessment Report, with its no-nonsense rhetoric and seemingly irrefutable infographics, offers little doubt about the severity of our environmental situation. And yet, how many of us have seen or heard of this report? To change this statistic, artist Olafur Eliasson and geologist Minik Rosing initiated Ice Watch, the latest project in Eliasson’s impressive and prolific career. With 100 tonnes of natural ice harvested from a fjord outside of Nuuk, Greenland, the team hopes to “direct attention to the publication of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report.” Their art, as heavy in meaning as in weight, aims to deliver a “physical wake-up call” and act as a “visually striking, haptic contribution to the climate debate.”

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The collected ice-blocks will take the form of a large-scale clock in Copenhagen's City Hall Square on Sunday. "I hope that people will touch the inland ice on City Hall Square and be touched by it," explains Eliasson in a press release. “Perception and physical experience are cornerstones in art,” he elaborates, “and they may also function as tools for creating social change.”

As Rosling adds, for as much as Ice Watch is meant to disturb and frighten the audience, it is also intended to inspire. “Science and technology have made it possible for us to destabilize Earth’s climate,” he reflects, “but now that we understand the mechanisms behind these changes, we have the power to prevent them from growing.”

This chilling installation will open in Copenhagen’s City Hall Square on October 26th and remain on display until October 29th. “Today we have access to reliable data that shed light on what will happen and what can be done,” Eliasson and Minik encourage, “Let’s appreciate this unique opportunity – we, the world, must and can act now. Let’s transform climate knowledge into climate action.”

Images via.

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