Organized by MTÜ Eesti-Saksa Kunstikoostöö (Non-profit association Estonian-German Art- and Culture Exchange, Estonia) and roam projects e. V. (Berlin, Germany) and in cooperation with the European Capitals of Culture 2024 Tartu/ Estonia – Bodø/ Norway – Bad Ischl/ Austria.

LOOK INTO MY ICE focusses on the experience of cross-border collectivism to address both the climate crisis and societal cohesion. This initiative brings international artists together to gain new perspectives by merging art and science inviting a broad audience to participate in a diverse, low-threshold program consisting of a group exhibition, artist in residencies, workshops and a public art installation. Look into my Ice creates an artistic and scientific dialogue and hereby acts as an eye opener on how each individual can contribute to the wellbeing of our much needed international community and to our shared planet.

The first event is the release of the monumental public art installation by Marta Djourina at the facade of the Ice Age Centre in Äksi, Estonia on August 26, 2023.

Selected through an international open call, the Berlin based Bulgarian artist Marta Djourina creates a monumental installation focussing on the disappearance of polar and glacier ice. Djourina’s pioneering experimental practice in the field of photography and her sensitivity in grasping ephemeral moments of living entities merge impressively in the three part installation.

The starting point for the aesthetic concept is rooted in a performative approach: In the glazing sun in front of the Ice Age Centre Djourina captures the process of melting ice through direct exposure on photosensitive paper and film. By using a magnifying glass Djourina literally draws the burning power of the sun into the paper. Inspired by the experimental process the results have been transformed into the photographic developing process in their appearance, leaving a wide range of colour and form which serve as the inspiration for the installation. Djourina adds another narrative level by integrating lost outlines of glacier and polar ice expansion in her concept. Ashes of Ice hereby acts as an umbrella project connecting all three Capitals of Culture, Bodø/ Norway and Bad Ischl/ Austria, within the artistic concept – regions which follow the disappearance of ice at a disastrous speed.

Marta Djourinas installation offers through her elegant and sensitive aesthetics a low-threshold approach to the topic. Her unique technique and methods capture our presence, open up minds to the near future by setting a memorial for the already lost.

26 August 2023 at Ice Age Centre, Äksi between 5 – 8 pm.

5 PM: Welcoming event in front of the installation
6 PM: Introductions by Kätrin Beljaev from the Ice Age Centre, project initiator Helene Bosecker, project curator Maria Helen Känd and Marta Djourina

Join us for refreshments and snacks!

Afterwards the night of the lights will illuminate the flanking Saadjärve lake with the possibility to explore the area with a ferry.

ICE AGE CENTRE

The Ice Age Centre is a thrilling educational theme park located in Southern Estonia. Its exhibitions provide a broad overview of the origins of ice ages and their effects on the Earth, Estonia, and Vooremaa. It introduces the development of Estonian nature and human settlement after the last ice age and the causes and research on climate change. Its location next to a beautiful lake symbolises both the extraordinary beauty of Estonian nature and the challenges posed by climate change-related heat waves affecting the region’s ecosystem