‘Les Vestiges’ a short film made by Rebecca Birch and Sarah Casey about the precarity of glacial archaeology, explored through heat-sensitive drawings that react to environmental conditions, amplifying invisible elements that affect the ice and archaeology such as heat, wind, erosion. The film was shot in Valais and Bern in 2023, including at the archaeological site at the Loetschenpass where artefacts as old as 3000 years have melted out of retreating ice. Narrated using excerpts of interviews with archaeologists Pierre-Yves Nicod and Regula Gubler.  Les Vestiges follows Casey’s work with these archologists, using synergies between the precarity of drawing , archaeology and the ice in which it has been preserved to reflect on human entanglements in stories of geological and environmental change in high mountain areas.

 

The film aimed to extend the Emergency! project, by The project asked how might film be able to communicate the changes taking place in the drawings when exposed to the environment what can film do to extend the meanings in the drawings themselves.

The film was ‘ premiered’ was at 2690m asl at the Loetschenpass Hut, a mountain refuge on the borders of the cantons of Valais and Bern. The Loetschenpass, is one of the most significant sites for glacial archaeology in Switzerland. The screening at Loetschenpass was particularly meaningful for this film about glacial archaeology – as many important finds are made not by archaeologists but by other people in the mountains. If they lie unnoticed they will rapidly disappear forever.

 

The firm was initiated during residency during residency at Musée d’art du Valais (2023 ) and is part of the wider Emergency project..This work was made possible with the support of Loetschenpass Hut, Lancaster University AHRC impact acceleration account, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts.

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