In Antarctic Archives, Janis Polar examines how Antarctica is constructed as a last frontier of ‹raw nature› — and deliberately breaks with this image in three chapters. He questions how the human discovery of the Antarctic has been staged as a triumph in imperial narratives and what consequences this has for ecosystems and geopolitical power dynamics. Which perspectives have been, and continue to be, excluded? Through the montage of photographic fragments and technical devices, Janis Polar creates an ambivalent archive that develops its own (visual) language and narratives while exploring its inherent blind spots.

Antarctic Archives experiments with entanglements in past, present, and future narratives, asking: By whom, how, and what for is Antarctica still being measured? And what might happen after the year 2048, when the treary will be open for renegotiaton? The work focuses on the tensions between the various functions of Antarctica — as a research object, as a political space, as a site for wild speculation, as a resource, or as a habitat for the non-human (microorganisms, animals, the landscape itself) and the human.

Antarctiv Archives comprises three chapters, each reflecting on different processes of rendering Antarctica visible and the interlinked technologization: from satellite imagery to radar scans all the way to the ice core laboratory. Janis Polar tells stories that oscillate between science and fiction, illustrating how humans and nations do not merely measure ‹nature› neutrally, but also manipulate and instrumentalize it — just as the artist’s own gaze and imagery do.

Antarctic Archives combines Janis Polar’s own film material, (historic) scientific imagery, digital renderings, and archival materials. For #650 Echoes of the Un/Known, he collaborated with Grammy Award-winning Māori Composer and Taonga Puoro practitioner Jerome Kavanagh Poutama. His compositions are based on sounds and recordings that he creates using traditional instruments and techniques. In dialogue with the cinematic images, a hybrid acoustic experience emerges, giving Antarctica its own ‹voice›.

// Amelie Schüle, Director Photoforum Pasquart & Janis Polar