The Aletsch Glacier is the largest glacier in the Alps. Glaciologists predict that, by the end of this century, most Alpine glaciers will have disappeared and only fragments of Aletsch will remain. Aletsch Negative is Laurence Bonvin’s powerful, lyrical elegy to this fragile giant. It operates at different spatial and temporal scales, taking us on a spell-binding journey deep inside this glacial mass, where the effects of climate change are playing out in real time. The glacier’s murmurs, burbles and cracks are overlaid in a soundtrack that builds to a deafening crescendo, while the negative image gives the ice the appearance of an oil slick, heightening the overall sense of impending threat. As viewers, we do not come out of this intimate, sensory experience unscathed.
Bonvin’s work is part documentary, part activism, and both poetic and political. It focuses mainly on peripheral landscapes: on “no-man’s lands” undergoing a process of physical and societal change.

Photographer and film-maker Laurence Bonvin (b. 1967, Sierre) is a graduate of the National School of Photography of Arles (ENSP). She teaches at ECAL University of Arts and Design, Lausanne. A winner of several prizes including the Vordemberge-Gildewart Award and two Swiss Art Awards, Bonvin has held a number of artist residencies, including in Cairo, South Africa, Paris and Berlin. She currently splits her time between Geneva, Lisbon and Berlin.

Laurence Bonvin. Aletsch Negative. © MHL, photography Margaux Corda