Melt* (concert/conference version)

Avec Pali Meursault, Lucas Davaze - Independant glaciologist and lecturer -, Antoine Rabatel - Glaciologist, IGE CNRS -

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Antoine Rabatel: Scientific Advisory and Writing
Lucas Davaze: Scientific Advisory and Writing, Performance
Pali Meursault: Sound Recording, Electronic Processing, Composition, Improvisation
Thomas Tilly: Sound Recording, Sine Waves, Composition, Improvisation

This version of the Melt project is developing in the hybrid form of a concert featuring the incredible sounds captured inside glaciers and a scientific outreach conference highlighting the challenges and scientific knowledge surrounding these phenomena. Melt aims to combine scientific insight and artistic creation to reach a wide audience and contribute to building new forms of sensitivity and culture, in line with contemporary climate issues.

We begin with the observation that while the current ecological crisis is widely discussed, it remains difficult for most people to understand its precise causes, perceive its traces, and feel its short- or long-term effects on our environments and our lives. Scientists and artists share a common need to evolve our own perspectives, as well as the discourses through which we transmit our knowledge and sensitivities. Within the scientific community, glaciologists are privileged witnesses of climate change, particularly due to the rapidity of changes observed on glaciers. Since the image of glaciers is so evocative, the mainstream press often echoes their contemporary evolution. However, mediation via formats that allow for a deeper exploration of processes and issues (conferences, books) often reaches an already informed audience. Moreover, these discourses frequently come up against the complexity of the models, the scale of global and overarching issues, or even forms of skepticism or fatalism. On the side of artistic practices, particularly for those whose work is constructed in relation to the environment, current ecological crises impose the need to evolve the representations and narratives through which we experience and speak about the world. The aim is to challenge the idea of ​​an autonomous and indifferent “Nature,” available only for silent contemplation or blind exploitation, and to ensure that our works contribute to forging new connections that connect our lives to the world around us. Thus, the challenge and main objective of Melt* is to work to make people both understand and feel the urgency and omnipresence of the ecological crisis through an environmental body—the glacier—whose destiny is intimately linked to our own.

With the voices of the glaciologists Antoine Rabatel, Bruno Jourdain, Delphine Six,
Émilie Capron, Fanny Brun, Florent Gimbert, Joël Savarino & Roberto Grilli
Video pictures created with the help of Clémence Raffin
Sonification of seismic datas with Ugo Nanni
Guiding on "Mer de glace": Benoît Urruty & Luc Moreau
Produced by Bonding Elastic
Distribution by le Studio d'en haut
With Médiation Climat and l’Institut des Géosciences et de l’Environnement (IGE)
Co-production with Territoires de Sciences (La Casemate/Cosmocité, Grenoble),
l’Hexagone (Scène Nationale, Meylan) and l’Espace Mendès-France (Poitiers).
With the support of Grenoble-Alpes University (IDEX), GEG foundation
and Département de l’Isère.