glacial meanders

glacial meanders is a short photo essay on the melting architecture of the Plaine Morte Glacier (Switzerland). These black & white analog photographs were taken by Pablo Diserens during the summer of 2021 while on a 10-day field recording hike."As I stood by the hollow core of a thawing crater, I noticed an enormous crack on its south flank. Intrigued, I ventured towards its opening only to discover that it plunged deep into the insides of the Plaine Morte Glacier. My shoes’ cleats firmly holding my weight on the tilted walls, I gazed into a fragile and temporary ice cave carved by the estival meltings. From its ceiling, countless drops formed a continuous glacial rain which reverberated far into the dissolving fissure. I carefully slipped under the vault and found myself at its center. The dripping sound unveiled depths which I could not reach. From there, I wandered into a vast system of sinuous arteries, a cold and wet ever-changing landscape, thawing away exponentially. The fleeting nature of these meanders embodied the vulnerability of the glacier in its whole as it timidly vanished around me. French for ‘dead plain’, the Plaine Morte sadly lives up to its name as it is dramatically disappearing under the Anthropocene’s blazing threats. " Newspaper is shipped folded in half!

Pablo Diserens is an artist, field recordist, composer, filmmaker, and photographer who engages with various topo- and phonographies with a wide range of visual and sonic recording techniques. Their work brings the bio- and geological features of the explored environments to the foreground by blending a rich variety of located sounds with texts, analog photographs and video within site-specific gestures, installations, live performances, exhibitions and publications. Through their various practices embedded in sonic ecology and acousmatic forms, Diserens draws attention to fragile biomes, unheard or unseen minutiae and the [political] act of listening with the aim of sparking ecological awareness.