Time Capsule

Laure Winants sets up her artist's studio in the heart of the Arctic ice pack. Embarked for four months on a polar expedition, she joined a team of multidisciplinary researchers to understand the evolution of this vast territory, where man is only a tiny part of life. Immersed in this white desert, she uses techniques developed specifically to capture the optical and luminous phenomena unique to the region. Using environmental sensors, the interaction of matter itself has become the creator of the work, putting human intervention to one side. Laure Winants makes this data tangible and emotionally perceptible, highlighting the interdependence of ecosystems. The artist creates a dialogue between art, natural science and technology.

The experiments are numerous: capturing the composition of light, capturing the acoustic inflections of icebergs, printing the chemical composition of water, and so on. Several boreholes have been drilled to take samples of permafrost, glaciers and sea ice, providing insights that take us beyond our own humanity. The data from these time capsules not only shed light on a 300-million-year-old past, but also create new narratives and regenerate our imaginations.

This geosensitive encounter has given rise to several lines of research, the first of which is Sensing Landscape, an experimental series exploring the phenomena of light and color in the Arctic. Presented for the first time this fall, these works are prints of photograms onto which ice cut-outs captured on site have been affixed. Polarized light on the material reveals the composition of the cut-out. It reveals the structure of the crystals, but leaves a shadow over certain elements that have been present for millions of years. By listening to the fragility of this constantly changing polar landscape, Laure Winants reveals a universe seen through the prism of nature itself, where ice and light filter our vision.

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