Arctic Stations
Summary
The duo exhibition Arctic Stations, utilises visual art and
film to explore the relationship between politics and science in the context of the geopolitical Arctic.
Supported by
The Danish Art Council
Danish Arts Workshop
15. Juni fonden
Description of project
The exhibition is rooted in a journey to the island of Qeqertarsuaq in western Greenland, which until 1953 was Denmark’s administrative headquarters for North Greenland. Today, the former administration building houses a cultural history museum, while the University of Copenhagen has taken over a research station named Arktisk Station and the Technical University of Denmark runs the magnetic observatory of the island.
Arctic Stations is thus a title referring to the site-specific starting point of the exhibition, but also to its spatial organisation: Three independent film installations serve as artistic articulations of the long stand-ing and multifaceted research work that informs Zenner and la Cour’s collaboration. Regarded not only as the spatial architecture of the exhibition, but also as a kind of historical space, the three installations us-ing 16mm film, reflects upon visual registration practices in botany, geophysics and anthropology. Here, visual registration is not understood as objective or authentic representation, but precisely as a historical effect; mediation of scientific data not understood as neutral dissemination, but as imaging practice.
This approach allows professional vision, gendered positions, personal anecdotes, environment and infra-structure to come to the fore: In other words, Tinne Zenner and Eva la Cour approach scientific practices in Qeqertarsuaq as a continued image of the presence of Denmark in Greenland.
Arctic Stations is a speculation on how complex scientific, institutional, industrial and commercial prac-tices are interconnected and entangled - although science often is regarded as something that can be separated from politics.
Type of work
Visual art and film exhibition
Published in
MøstingsHus,Copenhagen,Dk
Link to web site
https://kunsten.nu/journal/arctic-stations-tinne-zenner-eva-la-cour-moestings-hus/
Date
2020-02-29Creator
la Cour, Eva
Zenner, Tinne
Keywords
Qeqertarsuaq
Greenland
colonial relations
scientific data
visual inscriptions
16mm film
Publication type
artistic work
Language
eng