Curator, Nina Colosi
Argentine visual artist Andrea Juan received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2005 to develop Antarctica Project. Juan traveled to Antarctica four times where she recorded images and sounds of the terrain, images projected onto glacial walls, and performances on ice shelves during storms. From this she created a multi-media body of work consisting of photography, video, sound and performance art.
Antarctica Project III, Methane, produced during Juan’s third trip to the snow-covered plateau of Marambio reveals the miasma, inaccessibility and desolation of this frozen geography whose surface is slowly eroding due to toxic gases. She learned from resident scientists about the effects of climate change on ice shelves and the appearance of methane gas emerging as a result of melting glaciers and increasing greenhouse gases. She studied research on how the Poles are integral components of the Earth’s ecosystem that respond to and drive environmental changes elsewhere on the planet.
Andrea Juan’s aesthetic response to her explorations conveys an emotional connection between the intangible and the scientific. In the performance works, the actors grasp long trains of vividly colored red and blue tulles propelled by violent wind along the frozen white landscape evoking the metaphors of a wounded Antarctica, and entwined in it, of nature and humanity bound by destructive forces.
Through Juan’s art the viewer encounters Antarctica as a modern day place of pilgrimage where one can go to engage with its magnificence, vastness and relentless wildness, to connect spiritually with the power of nature. The work draws upon the realm of ecological wisdom of indigenous and tribal cultures who live close to the land and link humanity with a value system of ancient origin that holds nature as sacred.
Artists can play a critical role in creating a societal mindset aimed towards the resolution of the conflict between the conservation of nature and human consumption. In her work as an artist and a curator of environmental art exhibitions and symposia, Juan acts as a cultural diplomat for the Poles, generating emotional connection through art and dialog between artists, scientists, scholars, policy makers and the general public. In early 2008 she curated the acclaimed Sur Polar project, consisting of an interdisciplinary exhibition of work created by international artists based on their travels to Antarctica, and a symposium, at Museo Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Sur Polar and Antarctica Project III, Methane coincide with worldwide initiatives taking place during the International Polar Year (IPY) from March 2007 to March 2009. The IPY, which is the fourth program since 1882, is “an intensive burst of internationally coordinated, interdisciplinary scientific research and observations focused on the earth’s polar regions.” Related scientific and artistic events are taking place at collaborating centers around the world. IPY2007-2009 will expand on the scientific achievements, societal benefits and political accords accomplished in previous International Polar Year programs. It will extend understanding of many geophysical phenomena that influence nature’s global systems and define actions for the future.
As an artist and curator, Andrea Juan is a dedicated advocate for the environment. She draws the viewer into the Antarctic experience and a perception of the cycle of life that exists between human behavior and the Poles. Juan channels a spiritual connection to nature through her sensual artworks that evoke power and beauty.
