FURKA - En fonte – Im Schmelz – In the glaze

(Série édition Indiscipliné·e·s)

IRAV research team
Petra Köhle, Nicolas Vermot-Petit-Outhenin

Scientific partners
J. Emil Sennewald, Ralph Lugon

Funding
IRAV (EDHEA) and Fonds Indiscipliné ?

If an ice cube melts, is it lost? If you take a photograph of a melting ice cube, is it frozen? Melting is transformation: ice becomes water, then steam. Taking a photograph freezes a moment. Thou-sands of photographs transform into a stream of images, eventually melting into air.

Situated in the Alps, connecting the canton of Uri and the canton of Valais, the Furka Pass is a zone stretching between the hotel "Furkablick" and the melting Rhône Glacier. We perceive this place as a complex of unstable landscapes surrounded by shifting clouds witnessing human interventions, alternating from early trade routes to modern roads built to accommodate growing tourism and ve-hicular access. This place becomes a stage where transformations unfold as "ruined" landscapes.
From 1984 to 1999, Marc Hostettler's "Furk'art" project invited many international artists to the ho-tel. They shaped this place through art and its representation. Under "the gaze of the Furka", the landscape became a medium of artistic practice. The Rhône Glacier, on the other hand, led to tour-ism in the 1850s, sparking the construction of hotels and fueling an expanding network of photo-graphs and postcards that commercialized the landscape and shaped its perception as a spectacle. The scene was coated in a glossy sheen, preserving an idealized depiction of the Alpine landscape and its natural beauty. A transformation that coincided with the melting of the glacier, which had steadily been receding since 1850.

In this milieu, artists Petra Köhle and Nicolas Vermot-Petit-Outhenin, together with critic J. Emil Sennewald, set out in 2024 to understand the interactions between protagonists, geological phe-nomenons, organisms, pictures, symbols, gestures and works of art. After researching archives, talking to participating artists, collecting and digitalizing photographs taken on-site at different times, and studying a wide range of representations of the Furka Pass — ranging from Goethe's writings to recent Instagram posts by sports car enthusiasts — they invited artists Mark Luyten and Mo-hamed Abdelkarim, glaciologist Andreas Bauder, and philosopher Jens Badura to study on-site. Spending a few days together at 2436 metres above sea level in dense fog raised urgent questions about the construction of landscapes. The concerns investigate how the process of image trans-formation conditions the way environments are perceived and conceptualised. Under the circum-stances of climate change, this inquiry evolves into an exploration of how this landscape, seen both as a ruin and ruined by images, can transform into a site of engagement and an incitement to ac-tion.

Upcoming Publications
Petra Köhle, Nicolas Vermot Petit-Outhenin, J. Emil Sennewald, 'Furkablick' - Inheriting the image in ruins. Indiscipliné?, Institut de recherche en arts visuels (IRAV - Visual Arts Research Institute), EDHEA, Sierre, Switzerland, spring 2025 (in preparation).

Petra Köhle, Nicolas Vermot Petit-Outhenin, Mark Luyten, Fogging - Devices, Filters. Artist's edition, Sierre, Switzerland, spring 2025 (in preparation).

J. Emil Sennewald, Im Schmelz - On Survival in Image Ruins. Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER) Academic Journals, Athens, submitted 20/11/2024, paper under review, paper code: 2024-6305-AJHA-HUM.

J. Emil Sennewald, Im Schmelz - Vom Überleben in Bild-Ruinen. Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und All-gemeine Kunstwissenschaft (ZÄK - Journal of Aesthetics and General Art Studies), special volume on 'Media of the Arts / Arts of the Media', Felix Meiner Verlag, Hamburg, autumn 2025.

J. Emil Sennewald, Décomposer le paysage - dans la fonte d'images. Esse arts + opinions, issue 115, dossier 'Décomposition', Université du Québec à Montréal, spring 2025, proposal submitted 10/1/2025.

Upcoming lectures
17-18/6/2025 Petra Köhle, Nicolas Vermot Petit-Outhenin, J. Emil Sennewald, 'Im Schmelz': Landscape as a medium of art practice on the Furka Pass. Proposal for a paper to be presented at Back To Frozen Earth: Permafrost In Social Theory And Beyond - Conference, SciencesPo - Institut pour les transformations environnementales (Institute for Environmental Transformations), Paris.

Previous lectures
9-12/9/2024 J. Emil Sennewald, Im Schmelz: Landschaft als Medium von Kunstpraxis auf dem Furka Pass. Lecture at the DGAE (German Society for Aesthetics) Congress 2024 - Media of the Arts / Arts of the Media - Panel Milieus. On speculative ecologies, University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

Previous research days
30/6-2/7/2024 Inventaire et invention – la zone de la Furka comme terrain d’imaginations (Inventory and invention - the Furka Zone as a Field of Imagination). Petra Köhle, Nicolas Vermot Petit-Outhenin, J. Emil Sennewald with Mohamed Abdelkarim (artist), Andreas Bauder (glaciologist), Jens Badura (philosopher), Mark Luyten (artist), Furka Pass, Switzerland.