Nicolás Rupcich
Archipelago Archive

Museum

2020 — 2024
Site-specific module of an existing series
First presentation in Europe

Nicolás Rupcich is a Chilean photographer, film and animation artist. His artistic interest centres on the difference between material reality and digital representation. He questions how perception and imagination change when image conventions change and images no longer depict analogue reality but create their own fictional notions of reality.

Glaciers are regarded as archives of climate history. With the loss of glaciers, not only are climatic conditions changing, but knowledge of nature is also disappearing. The collection of information about glaciers in the form of images began around 1850 at the same time as the global glacier retreat that continues to this day. At that time, scientists and photographers began to document the natural phenomenon. Nicolás Rupcich travelled to the Arctic Ocean in April 2022 to show the current changes from his perspective; the installation "Archipelago Archive" provides an insight into the video material that the artist recorded there. The many screens are simultaneously reporting, image library and knowledge repository.