Snow Future

In its project snow future, the ERES Foundation examines the many images of the Alps, from tourist attraction to climate victim. Temperatures are rising here at a higher rate than the worldwide average. Global warming is taking its toll on glaciers, permafrost and snowfall. In addition, tourism with its ski lifts, cable cars and snow cannons is changing our perception of this traditional region in an increasingly radical way.

Hansjoerg Dobliar, Philipp Messner, Walter Niedermayr are three artists, who, each in his own way, are exploring the obvious as well as the more subtle changes in this mountainous region.

Their interest lies in the observation of a landscape changed by human interference. But it is not simply the conventional criticism of the destruction of nature by mankind that is at the center of their artistic endeavors. They strive to discover what is abstract in the mostly deserted snowy landscapes. They all pose the same question but answer it in different ways. To what extent does art contribute to certain notions we have of nature that we yearn for? The artists deliberately target and radically shatter any and all existing clichés and show how man-made, hyper-artificial and imaginary Alpine landscapes have come to be.

Before the exhibition begins in late January, Philipp Messner, with the support of the Cultural Department of the City of Munich, stages a happening in front of the Alte Pinakothek. Using three snow cannons like gigantic spray cans of paint, he transforms the museum’s large south lawn into a colorful piece of art.