Sep 30 2024 13 mins
In this episode, Maëlle Cornut (visual artist) and Dr Gianalberto Losapio (environmental scientist) talk about their upcoming field trips to the glaciers of the Ferpècle region in the Swiss Alps, their points of contact with each other's discipline, and their strong interest in art-science collaboration. In their project ’Intertwined destinies: glaciers and their companion species’ they look at the consequences of glacier extinction on ecosystems, analysing the network of interactions between the intertwined organisms and glaciers.
Maëlle Cornut is a visual artist, arts researcher and graduate of the Haute école d’art et de design in Geneva (CH). Her practice focuses on feminist and gender issues while her research attempts to understand what connects us to the world around us and how we interact with it. As part of the PolARTS programme Maëlle Cornut produced ‘Glacier companion species’, which is part of the exhibition ‘Watching the Glacier Disappear’ taking place throughout summer 2024 in various locations in Switzerland.
Dr Gianalberto Losapio is an environmental scientist with a PhD in Ecology from the University of Zurich, previously Postdoctoral Researcher at Stanford University and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich). He is principal investigator of the Biodiversity Change group at the University of Lausanne and Assistant Professor of Botany at the University of Milan.
About PolARTS:
PolARTS is a joint initiative of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and the Swiss Polar Institute to stimulate exchange and foster collaboration between art and science. Past and current editions of PolARTS: Selected tandems 2022, Selected tandems 2024.
Mentioned in this episode:
Donna Haraway: The American professor emerita has made significant contributions to the fields of science and technology studies, feminist theory, and ecofeminism. Her work critiques anthropocentrism, emphasises nonhuman processes, and explores ethical relations between culture and nature.
‘The Struggle for Existence’ (1879), by painter George Bouverie Goddard (1832–1886)