Yadegar Asisi

ANTARCTICA

With ANTARCTICA, Yadegar Asisi is putting the world’s coldest region in the spotlight – showcasing the land and marine environments around the South Pole, bordered by Patagonia in South America and Cape Agulhas in South Africa, as well as Tasmania and New Zealand. The panorama is currently in the development stages, with an opening date yet to be confirmed.

The giant panorama is the latest in a series of natural panoramas created by Asisi as he continues to explore the strained relationship between man and nature. As the Earth’s most inhospitable region, the Antarctic is also the part of the world that has been least influenced by man – and so it still holds many secrets. At more than 21 million square kilometres, the region is twice the size of Europe, yet its research stations are inhabited by just 4,000 people during the Antarctic summer and 1,000 brave souls in winter. Antarctica’s existence was only established in the early 19th century, and the Norwegian Roald Amundsen and his team were first people to ever reach the South Pole in 1911.

The panorama is from the perspective of a platform in the water in front of the Antarctic ice sheet. Visitors look out over a frozen landscape of glaciers, ice shelves, giant table icebergs, pack ice and water in hues ranging from snow-white and cream to aquamarine, bright blue and navy, all the way through to the darkest greys and anthracite. While scarcely a living thing can be seen on the ‘eternal ice’ of the Antarctic, the pack ice zone is home to a rich ecosystem. Huge schools of krill and other small crustaceans swarm through the ocean at the beginning of a food chain that sustains fish, whales, squid, sea lions, seals, penguins and other seabirds.