Скачать или смотреть First deposit of Belgium in the ARCTIC WORLD ARCHIVE on 29 June 2023.

LEGACY: FIRST BELGIAN DEPOSIT IN THE ARCTIC WORLD ARCHIVE — Depositing my work for thousands of years, deep in an arctic coal mine in Svalbard.

On June 29th 2023, I deposited my photographic work in the Arctic World Archive, a vault in an abandoned coal mine near Longyearbyen, Svalbard. This archive in the arctic permafrost preserves the world's memory, such as (cultural) heritage, knowledge and data. It was the first deposit from Belgium.

This facility is similar to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which I documented in 2014, where duplicates of all seed samples are kept to preserve the biodiversity of the world's food crops.

That day, June 29th, I brought in two deposits for eternity:
7 photos of my Pacific project, a testimony to the effects and consequences of rising sea levels and how Pacific Islanders mitigate and adapt to this existential issue. Due to rising sea levels, Pacific atolls nations like Tuvalu and Kiribati will completely disappear by the end of the 21st century. This document is and will be a voice for Pacific islanders. The photos bear witness to the greatest crisis in human existence.
27 photos of the scientific ‘TalPro22’-expedition on the Belgian research vessel BELGICA. In the future, humanity can see how oceanographic research was carried out in 2022, on a state-of-the-art research vessel with the name ‘BELGICA’. They I’ll learn how anno 2022 humans conducted science, looking and reading metadata of the used instruments, methods, technology etc.

Both documents will bear witness to the importance of preserving our collective knowledge, scientific progress as a species and human impact, for future generations.

Thanks to the unique location and the medium pellicule ('piqlFilm'), the storage of these two photo projects can be a testimony of islands that will unfortunately disappear as a result of climate change, and of oceanographic research on an advanced research vessel of Belgium, performed in 2022.

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