Melting Points

The polar regions, unknown and uninhabited until the end of the 19th century, represent a distant and enigmatic territory. They are places that still contain the romantic epic of the polar explorers, whale hunters and Christian missionaries who began to inhabit the territory, together with all the mythologies and rarities that characterize the geographically isolated landscapes.

Throughout this exploration during my stay in Svalbard, I investigated topics such as: (1) what moves someone to live in polar lands, (2) the imminent end of mining in a territory where coal is key to understanding local identity, (3) the threat and consequences of climate change and (4) the omnipresence of death in an enormously hostile territory.

“Prison and palace and reververation

of thunder of spring over distant mountains”

T. S. Eliot. The Waste Land (1922)