Hôtel de Pontalba – COP21
Hôtel de Pontalba, the Official Residence of the U.S. Ambassador to France, Paris, France
November 30, 2015 – December 11, 2015
On the occasion of COP21, COAL+ICE has been adapted for the Hôtel de Pontalba.
A 14.5 meter wide LED screen erected on the garden lawn cycles through two panoramic presentations. The first compares historical photographs of the Himalaya taken by early explorers George Mallory, Major E.O. Wheeler, and Vittorio Sella in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with recent photographs by filmmaker and mountaineer David Breashears, starkly revealing a loss of glacier mass due to climate change in the intervening years. The second focuses on coal, and includes both contemporary and historical images of mining and miners. Historical photographs include work by Lewis Hine and Bruce Davidson, images that have become iconic in the history of photography. Contemporary photographers include Yu Haibo, Niu Guozheng, and Geng Yunsheng, who worked in China, Gleb Kosorukov, who made portraits of miners in Ukraine, and Cameron Davidson, who has taken aerial photographs of mountaintop removal mining in the United States.
The exhibition continues inside the Hôtel de Pontalba. Photos of this part of the installation are forthcoming.
Installation photos and videos by Leah Thompson.
Major support for COAL+ICE was provided by Salesforce.
Additional support by: John S. Wadsworth, Jr., John A. “Mac” McQuown, Nion McEvoy, Thomas and Margot Pritzker, and The Arthur Ross Foundation.