At Oslo's Italian Cultural Institute, Roberto Ghezzi's art investigates climate change

From September 26 to November 15, 2024, theItalian Cultural Institute in Oslo presents an exhibition dedicated to the research of Italian artist Roberto Ghezzi (Cortona, 1978) entitled WHITE FADES, Art, Science and Climate Change in the Polar Lands curated by Mara Predicatori. A project resulting from research on the Arctic in collaboration with the National Research Council with the patronage of Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Palazzo Lucarini Contemporary and the support of Cartiera Magnani Pescia and Phoresta ETS. Roberto Ghezzi’s solo exhibition also sees the collaboration of Italy and Norway in the artistic-scientific restitution of a project that aims to ’make ice speak’ by addressing environmental and ecological issues through art. The exhibition thus aims to investigate nature and phenomena related to climate change through art.

The exhibition presents Ghezzi’s works during two art residencies: the first in Tassilaq, Greenland in 2022 at Robert Pieroni’s The Red House, and the second in Svalbard Islands, Norway in 2023 at the Spitsbergen Artists Center. Both residencies were realized in collaboration with CNR ISP, Institute of Polar Sciences . The scientific contribution of researchers Biagio Di Mauro and Fabiana Corami enabled further discoveries on glacier melting. In both experiences, the artist let the melting of the ice generate the works: in the first case, by producing cyanotypes, photographic prints, through runoff; in the second, by making a video edited from footage taken by cameras carried by the rapidly melting rivulets of ice.

Through painstaking preparatory practice, Ghezzi allows natural phenomena and landscape elements such as water, air and ice to imprint their traces on various media in experiments that respect nature. The traces collected are not altered by the artist’s intervention but take the form of samples or findings that can also be analyzed scientifically. Completing the exhibition are cyanotypes depicting the landscapes explored by the artist and notebooks containing visual notes and diaries of his experiences.

Image: Roberto Ghezzi, The Polar Stream (2023). Courtesy of the artist

At Oslo's Italian Cultural Institute, Roberto Ghezzi's art investigates climate change

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.