Emma Critchley ©

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2. Witness. 29 minutes, multi-screen film installation HD, 5.1 sound. 2021
   (Teaser above)

   Witness was made during the Earth Water Sky residency with Science Gallery Venice. By making the link between the human body and the body of ice known as a glacier through movement, words and images, this evocative three-screen film installation is a meditation on how everything which exists in our world, whether sentient or not, is interconnected and affects the whole.

   During the residency I worked with climate scientist Professor Carlo Barbante at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and his Ice Memory Project team - a global initiative to create an archive of ice cores from glaciers that are rapidly disappearing. Each core holds bubbles of ancient air preserved from the Earth’s atmosphere from up to 2.7 million years ago, which tell us about our climatic past and help understand predicted future. 

   The accompanying libretto for the work includes excerpts from interviews with people in Kenya and Peru, who are living with glacial retreat from Kilimanjaro and Cordillera Blanca on a daily basis, which become witness statements to the film. 

   The film premiered in the Italian Pavilion of the Venice Architecture Biennale in the Arsenale (17th International Exhibition of Architecture at La Biennale di Venezia), as part of the Resilient Communities programme.

   Producer & Curator: Ariane Koek

   Funder: Fondation Didier et Martine Primat

   Dancers: Grace Chinonyerem Okebugwu, Giovanna Garzotto & Ayako Inanami

   Sound and Music: Nicolas Becker & Lucy Railton

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