The Rhône Glacier serves as the starting point for Watching the Glacier Disappear, a vast exhibition unfolding across Switzerland. The show is the culmination of five years of on-site research by artist Carmen Perrin, with more recent input from architect Georges Descombes, civil engineer Jürg Conzett, and musician and performer Jacques Demierre. It was inspired by the sight of the glacier ravaged by the effects of climate change, with the section near an ice cave covered in geotextile sheets in an attempt to slow the melting and keep the tourist business going.

The exhibition aims to lift the veil concealing the truth. It compels us to consider the glacier in a new and different light. To see, hear and feel the message it’s sending about the changing face of nature on our planet. And to understand that it’s not too late to save the glaciers – but only if we act now.

The centrepiece of the event is an exhibition in the main hall at the Grand Hotel Glacier du Rhône in Gletsch, where Perrin’s journal will go on display, setting out her thought processes and the people and obstacles she encountered along the way.

The opening of the exhibition will be set to music, with an original score – composed by Demierre and performed by a trio of singers – setting up an intimate dialogue between the natural and human worlds.

A suspended walkway designed by Conzett and Descombes will take visitors over the landscape where the glacier once stood, and where new life forms – so fragile and precious – are emerging.

Jacques Demierre (b. 1954) is a Geneva-based pianist, composer and performer whose interests span jazz, improvisation and contemporary music. He plays piano in a wide variety of improvisation groups, performs regular solo concerts and collaborates with various contemporary ensembles. His practice encompasses music, sound poetry and in-situ performance. Demierre is co-editor of Contrechamps, a periodical focused on 20th- and 21st-century music. He was awarded the Swiss Music Prize in 2018.

Echoing, sound performance by Jacques Demierre, Dorothea Schürch and Antoine Läng on the suspended promenade designed by Georges Descombes and Jürg Conzett © Alexis Feuillet.