Nordenskiöld and the Ice Cap

The Greenlandic ice cap forms a vast space consisting entirely of snow and ice, in a state of constant transformation and without any of the features normally used to describe and identify a landscape. A.E. Nordenskiöld’s expedition in 1870 marked the first attempt by a European to explore this part of Greenland, and his previously unpublished diary gives a fragmented account of the seven days the expedition spent on the ice. A narrative which points to the slippage between landscape, experience and vocabulary and alludes to the Arctic as a real and imagined space in western culture.

Lars Bang Larsen and Anders Kreuger elaborates on Joachim Koester’s installation Nordenskiöld and the Ice Cap, as well as the philosophy and history of ice, exploration and the unknown. The books last section Notes and Images, combines photographs from early Arctic expeditions with quotes from artist like Robert Smithson, Kazimir Malevich or writers Thomas Pynchon and William Vollmann and others.

Joachim Koester is an artist born 1962 in Denmark. He lives in New York and Copenhagen.

Joachim Koester’s installations have been shown at Documeta X, Kassel, Johannesburg Biennale, Johannesburg, Kwangju Biennale, South Korea, Venice Biennale, Van AbbeMuseum, Eindhoven, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Musee d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, Statens Museum for Kunst, as well as in solo shows at Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, Galleri Nicolai Wallner and Gallery Greene/Naftali, New York.

Joachim Koester

2005

Format: 14 x 19,5
72 sider
vægt: 145 g.
Design: Peter Rössell
Udgivet m. støtte fra:
Ny Carlsbergfondet,
Beckett Fonden