Nationwide exhibition to highlight Switzerland’s disappearing glaciers

The idea for the project came about two and a half years ago, not least because the melting of the glacier is intensifying due to climate change. Keystone / Peter Schneider

More than 35 Swiss institutions and 60 artists will be taking part in the nationwide exhibition ‘Watching the Glacier Disappear’, officially opening on the Rhône glacier in canton Valais on June 29. 

“The Rhone glacier is the most depicted Swiss glacier in art,” curator Bernhard Fibicher said in an interview with Keystone-SDA news agency.  

He said the idea for the project came about two and a half years ago, not least because the melting of the glacier is intensifying due to climate change. Initially, the plan was to organise a show in a museum.  

“But we don’t actually need to attract people to a museum, we need to take them outside – to the glaciers,” said Fibicher, and so the project has expanded.  

+ Focus: why melting glaciers affect us all

Exhibitions that are part of the project have been running since January, with institutions from Valais to Graubünden involved. The Aargauer Kunsthaus, for example, is exhibiting relevant works from its collection, and the Lucerne Glacier Garden is displaying two art installations.  

“We wanted to broaden the discourse on glacier melting, and bring in the voice of culture,” said Fibicher. This is why historic and contemporary artworks, music and literature are all part of the project. Organisers are also trying to include positive aspects. 

The exhibition’s official opening will take place at the end of June, when the mountain passes are open and visitors can see the dwindling Rhône glacier. Geneva-based artist Carmen Perrin will be showing documents onsite that argue that the covering of the glacier is linked to private commercial purposes, of which she is critical. A sound performance is also planned. 

Adapted from German by DeepL/kp 

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].