Year: 2019
Project type: Temporary installation
Location: Drammen, Norway
Artists: Ingrid Solvik, Gard Gitlestad
This project aimed to visualise potential consequences of man-made climate change in a very long time perspective, as a reminder that the changes may continue far beyond the year 2100, when most calculations and predictions tend to stop.
In the book The Long Thaw, the climatologist David Archer estimates that chain reactions could cause a global average sea level rise of 50 metres within several thousand years, if current greenhouse gas emissions remain unchanged.
To contextualise this, a 150 metre long continuous line of light at 50 metres above sea level followed the contour of the terrain, crossing several hiking footpaths in a hillside overlooking the city of Drammen, Norway. Designed to be seen both from afar and up close, the installation attempted to make a rather unfathomable prospect more tangible.
Throughout Norway, artists contributed with installations and artworks to raise awareness of a lawsuit against the Norwegian government initiated by a coalition of environmental organisations. The aim of the lawsuit was to stop further oil extraction permits on the Norwegian continental shelf.
A 150 m line of light.
An imagined shore at 50 m.o.h.
5000 years from now,
humans might not be here
but the impact of our emissions
will still be altering this planet
An imagined shore at 50 m.o.h.
5000 years from now,
humans might not be here
but the impact of our emissions
will still be altering this planet
