THE PAVILLION + THE COLOR OF ICE

The Pavillion

Aannguaq Reimer-Johansen / Greenland / 2023 / 10 min / World Premiere

An architect’s sculptural work intervenes in the Greenlandic nature of which it is itself a product on the country’s western coast. A construction that becomes a reflection on the natural conditions from which it springs.

High up in the cliffs and facing the sea in Sarfannguit in western Greenland, architect Konstantin Ikonomidis is working on a curved pavillion built of ice blocks the size of bricks, laid out in an ingenious system according to strict mathematical principles. An almost sculptural monument, it is at once a man-made intervention in the frozen and rugged rocky landscapes of the wild, and a product of the very raw material and condition of that same nature: the ice that is now melting. The story of the construction of the Qaammat Pavilion is told by Ikonomidis, who shares his thoughts on its construction, and his hopes for the future of his work and the vast country around it.

The Color of Ice

Anders Graver / Denmark / 2023 / 59 min / World Premiere

Two scientists and a Greenlandic hunter each investigate and discover climate change in their own way on the white and blue ice sheets, but the goal and the hope are the same.

Over 60 years ago, an expedition of scientists drilled down through the Greenland ice sheet to measure temperatures at different depths. In ‘The Color of Ice’, two American scientists find the same site to conduct the same experiment using a new drilling technique to investigate how much ice has melted and how much the temperature has changed. Because information from Greenland is important because it melts two to three times more than the global average. In the middle of the ice sheet, their paths cross with Greenlandic hunter Olennguaq, who observes and feels the climate changes scientists are drilling for evidence of every day. He can tell by the colour of the ice and the moisture of the snow if his dog sled can run on it, but the changes make it hard to hold on to traditions and culture.