Symposium
Caring for Naturecultures The Cryosphere
Convened by
- Details
-
Venue: Collegium Helveticum, Rudolf Wolf Room
Please note that this is an in-person event only. No livestream or recording will be available. Participation is free of charge. No registration is needed.
As glaciers retreat under rapidly warming climatic conditions, they emerge not only as indicators of environmental transformation, but as complex conservation objects navigating natural and cultural worlds. Melting ice releases archaeological artefacts preserved through freezing rather than intentional conservation; geotextile coverings transform Alpine landscapes into sites of technological intervention and ecological grief; Antarctic heritage sites expose the entanglements of preservation, geopolitics, and climate instability; and artistic practices confront the emotional, ethical, and material contradictions of caring for environments undergoing irreversible change.
Responding to these transformations, Caring for Naturecultures – The Cryosphere reconceives conservation as a cross-domain practice of care that exceeds conventional distinctions between natural and cultural heritage. Bringing together perspectives from art history, anthropology, archaeology, conservation, environmental humanities, glaciology, natural sciences, and artistic practice, the symposium approaches glaciers as natureculture hybrids: living archives shaped by climate, memory, extraction, scientific knowledge, and political imagination.
Structured around themes of glacial loss, emotional and spiritual responses to disappearing ice, glacial archaeology, environmental politics, Antarctic heritage, and artistic engagements with the cryosphere, the program explores how melting ice destabilizes inherited notions of permanence, stewardship, and preservation. Across discussions of mourning, geoengineering, migration, emerging archaeological objects, and complex ecologies, glaciers appear not as passive landscapes, but as active agents within Earth histories and as sites of planetary responsibility.
List of speakers
- Jean Chamel
- Nathalie Dietschy
- Giovanna di Pietro
- Dennis Hansen
- Hanna Hölling
- Kati Lindström
- Thomas Reitmaier
- Adam SĂ©bire
- Philip Ursprung
- Ester Vonplon
Exhibition on the topic
Want to be the first to know about upcoming events?