Digital Exhibition for World Water Day

At the confluence of the Eisack and Rienz rivers, the two bodies of water unite and form a torrential stream that flows down the valley at high speed. Stefano Cagol positioned during the Water Light Festival 2019 his Ice melting Ice - a flashing installation of neon tubes that draws visitors' attention to global warming and the disappearance of the glaciers - on the small spit of land at the crossing point. The warning blinking climbs become a memorial that points to climate change and the inevitable march of time.

Stefano Cagol created the performance The Ice Monolith for the Maldives pavilion at the 55^th Venice Biennale in 2013. He placed a one-and-a-half tonne block of ice from the Alps on a canal in the lagoon city. After 72 hours, the ice had melted. This dissolution process was documented by video recording. The performance is a reflection on the disappearance of the glaciers: due to the constant rise in sea levels, both Venice and the Maldives are in danger of soon sinking into the sea. At the 2019 edition of the Water Light Festival, the video of the performance was projected onto the Brixen Tourismus building.

The Alps are warming up more than other areas of the planet, and this change affects the disappearance of glaciers, water availability and life at high and low altitudes. The danger is right in front of our eyes. The artist Stefano Cagol encourages us to reflect on the complex mosaic of causes and effects that make up the picture of climate changes, propagating an inexorable signal of danger that spares no one. He does this with his artwork, a bitter word game that plays on the proximity between the English words warming and warning. The symbolic luminous effect of alarm is underlined by the sound, which translates the frequencies emitted by the heat of the sun into sound waves, introducing the sounds caused by the melting of a glacier.

The Ice is Melting at the Pøules is a fragment of an overall art project wearemelting.art. It consists of an ever-changing analogue and organic projection made by light shining through rotating and enclosed glass discs. These discs contain actual meltwater from the ice sheet in Greenland, blue dye from endangered cornflowers and crude oil from an actual oil field in USA. The incompatibility of the materials used stands metaphorically for oil production and the associated problems regarding global warming. The work The Ice is Melting at the Pøules displayed at the Water Light Festival 2022 tells the story of the more than 13 million litres of ice melting – each second.

The work STRATA, specifically designed for the Brixen light art festival, is an intriguing journey through the life cycle of a glacier as a site-specific projection on the library's facade in Brixen. The development of a glacier is followed from Microcosm to Macrocosm, from compressed layers of snow to meandering formations that shape whole landscapes. During the animation, the visitors are guided into the glacier's heart, where they can witness an interplay of ice, light and sonic phenomena. Also, the role of technological advances and human influences on diverse ecosystems are explored until the cycle begins anew.

The photographic animation is based on an exploratory journey to the Aletsch Glacier in the Swiss Alps in the summer of 2018. Equipped with a camera, microphone and computer, the artist collected image and sound material that forms the basis for the large-format projection. Still and moving images as well as audio recordings make the process of melting and change in its irretrievability visually tangible and sensually comprehensible. The artwork was exhibited at Neustift Monastery as part of the Water Light Festival 2024.

Glaciers are regarded as archives of climate history. With the loss of glaciers, not only are climatic conditions changing, but knowledge of nature is also disappearing. The collection of information about glaciers in the form of images began around 1850 at the same time as the global glacier retreat that continues to this day. At that time, scientists and photographers began to document the natural phenomenon. Nicolás Rupcich travelled to the Arctic Ocean in April 2022 to show the current changes from his perspective; the installation Archipelago Archive, exhibited during the Water Light Festival 2024 at the Neustift Monastery, provides an insight into the video material that the artist recorded there. The many screens are simultaneously reporting, image library and knowledge repository.

Water (in the form of ice or snow) and light are central elements in Leonhard Angerer's photographic work. As is his commitment to the climate and the melting glaciers. Light is the most important creative medium in his photography, and the large-format photographic work on the façade of the Brixen Tourismus Genossenschaft during the Water Light Festival 2023, which was created using light, shows one of the many glaciers in the Alpine region. It is well known that glaciers contribute to the water supply of settlement areas. However, glacier researchers expect the glaciers to melt almost completely before the end of this century, with devastating consequences for the water regime of rivers and the species that live there. The dripping glacier bathed in summer light is representative of the 5000 glaciers in the Alpine region that are threatened by global warming. The hot summer months of recent years have clearly left their mark. Its former sublime beauty is melting away. Now it is both a warning and a visual aid.

Leonhard Angerer often dreams of snow. This is probably why he explores the snowy Alps in North-South Tyrol and Trentino with his camera. His focus lies on climate change, and his favourite subjects are snow and the eternal ice. The large-format photographic work displayed on the façade of the Brixen Tourismus building bears the significant title: On the Edge of the Abyss. According to UN Secretary-General Guterres, the earth is on the edge of the abyss due to global warming. The big print depicts the Marmolada glacier and in the centre of the photograph you can see the momentous glacier collapse that occurred in July 2022 due to excessive temperatures. The photographic work is intended to be both a warning and a reminder.