The Temple of Science

From November 4-10, 2024, the window exhibition The Temple of Science by landscape architect and researcher Aisling O’Carroll (Planetary Times Winter Fellow in Planetary Scholars & Artists in Residence Program) was showcased at Kunsthalle Giessen. As the Panel’s third collaboration with Giessen’s main space for contemporary art, the exhibition continued Kunsthalle’s INSIDEOUT series by exhibiting O’Carroll’s installation in the window of Kunsthalle for the viewing of all passersby.

O’Carroll’s extensive archival research and fieldwork on the entwined geological, glaciological, and human histories of the Unteraar glacier in the Bernese Alps brought the installation to life as an alternative “temple” of science: A scaled-down representation of the Hôtel des Neuchâtelois – an improvised mountain hut occupied by a group of pioneering glaciologists during their summer expeditions in 1840 and 1841. The hut was built under the shelter of a huge erratic block of micaceous schist found on the Unteraar glacier’s medial moraine. The mountain hut was lost when the boulder broke apart in the winter of 1842. In the sands of time, the geological, glaciological, and human timescales converged in the valley. Later, Western scientific and Alpine narratives romanticized the Hôtel as the ‘Temple of Science’ as homage to the authority and intrepidity of the expeditioners.  

In a 1:10 scale, the installation entails three reconstructed parts of the hut, based on a digital model which O’Carroll created by scanning and geolocating its former shape and position by using archived images and on-site field work. To cast these parts into rock-like shapes, O’Carroll used the traditional plaster technique of scagliola. The resulting sculpture bears a striking resemblance to the original micaceous schist block! To mimic the original dry-stone wall, the three casts were assembled into a mirrored enclosure, positioned upon metal stands.

O’Carroll’s alternative Temple of Science offers its spectators different perspectives - both human and more-than-human - on long-term planetary changes. Due to the glacial movements, the original Hôtel constitutes a lost architectural space today, with its debris scattered across the Grimsel Valley, Aare River and eventually to the Rhine and beyond. Keeping it from being lost in planetary time, this reconstruction translates the geological histories that once converged the planetary and human chronologies splendidly and opens up our minds to think through more inclusive relations with the Earth.  

It is central for O’Carroll to acknowledge that her reconstruction is not an accurate recreation of the Hôtel that delivers any definitive or absolute truths about its histories but rather an interplay of reality, speculation, interpretation and originality of the artist. For example, she consciously decided to remove the white flag that was placed on top of the Hôtel by the original expeditioners from the reconstruction. Rather than reconstructing the human-made and -occupied architectural space in a manner that emphasizes the imperial and colonial notions of forcible demarcation of ownership that fed into it, O’Carroll reimagines a more inclusive “temple” of science. Her emphasis on the agency of the different types of rocks lending the Hôtel its shape and of the violent geological and glaciological events causing its destruction (more-than-human agency) attest to this.  

The opening of the exhibition showcased O’Carroll’s creative process by turning the interiors of Kunsthalle Giessen into a space where visitors could trace her year-long archival collection of maps, images, rocks and got the chance to engage with the artist. Nadia Ismail (Director of Kunsthalle) and Liza Bauer (Interim Scientific Manager of the Panel) welcomed the audience, discussing the collaboration between art and science and how aesthetic practices can shape our climate future and promote sustainable thinking. Exhibition curator Theresa Deichert discussed the key themes of O’Carroll’s work: the intersection of scientific methods and artistic practices, and the use of environmental reconstruction as a design methodology.

The exhibition also unveiled Charlotte Wrigley’s (Planetary Times fellow) project "Archiving Giessen", where Wrigley collects personal narratives from the people of Giessen to be preserved for eternity in a time capsule in Svalbard, Norway. To make a contribution to the archive, please visit her website.

The following day, Kinocenter Giessen hosted a screening of 'Last Things' (2023) by Deborah Stratman, which explores evolution and extinction through rocks and minerals—those that predate humanity and will outlast us. After the screening, O'Carroll delivered a keynote on environmental reconstruction as a design practice, connecting her work with Stratman’s film. A discussion moderated by Planetary Times Fellow Lukáš Likavčan and Liza Bauer followed, exploring human and non-human relations, and the role of fiction and storytelling in engaging with non-Anthropocentric narratives of evolution and habitability.

Karola Schepp for Gießener Allgemeine reported the event, and here you find Gießener Anzeiger reporting a detailed account of the winter semester program organized by the Panel and the fellows.