Andrea Boscardin / Rumore Nero

ANDREA BOSCARDIN

SENTINELLE | 2025~IN PROGRESS

“Sentinelle” (sentinel) is a project by the photographer Andrea Boscardin exploring the changing glaciers of the Alps due to climate change.

Through his work, which mixes : research, archival images, mapping, and his primary medium (photography) the artist examines the impact of climate change and its irreversible effects on a unique and fragile environment like the Alps and its glaciers.

The starting point is the Chiarella all’Amianthe refuge, located at 3,000 meters in the Italian Alps and accessible only on foot. The Chiarella, managed by the Italian Alpine Club, officially joined the project in 2024: “Sentinel Refuge for Climate and the Environment,” a partnership between the CAI (Italian Alpine Club) and the CNR (National Research Council). Thanks to this project, the refuge benefited in 2024 from the installation of a new climate station and two webcams operational all year round (the refuge is only open in July and August).

“In August 2024, during my first stay at the refuge as a volunteer managing the structure, I was deeply moved by the beauty and power of the high mountain landscape. Living in this magnificent place every day, I quickly learned and realized that this power is very fragile and severely threatened by ongoing climate change: every year the landscape changes, and the glaciers shrink significantly and irreversibly. I felt, as an artist and as a person, a duty to document and tell the story of this ongoing change and to showcase these places before they disappear, while also trying to convey a more responsible way of experiencing the mountains and their secrets.”

The project “Sentinelle” includes the following artworks, and series :

/ Reversal landscapes (2025-still in progress, photography and light boxes)

/ Unperfect landscapes (2025-still in progress, photography and archive)

/ Merging landscapes (2025-still in progress, photography and prints)

/ Reversal landscapes (2025-still in progress, reversal photography and light boxes)

Is a series of landscapes made with reversal films : after being developped the originals 6x9 medium format films are framed in light-boxes and exposed.

The artist uses light as an artistic medium and as an integral part of the creative process and the exhibition of their works.

The aim is to create a collection of unique works that can both fascinate and challenge us, to highlight, document, but also to bear witness to and denounce this slow and certain disappearance of glaciers in the Alps.

/ Unperfect landscapes (2025-still in progress, photography and archive)

The images of this series are the result of the superposition of images created by the artist himself in 2025 and old images coming from refuge's archives.

The goal is to create a series of almost "perfect and beautiful" images.

In these ‘’almost perfect" images the edges of the glaciers do not match and this imperfection creates in the observer a sensation of disturbance given by small, almost invisible elements. The perfect landscape becomes quickly disturbing and unperfect : the slow disappearance of glaciers start to become visible.

/ Merging landscapes (2025-still in progress, photography and prints)

Is a series of black and white landscapes of mountains and glaciers.

After being developped the originals 6x4,5 negatifs films are printed by the artist in darkroom with several stages of overexposure.

After this print process the images are assembled (like an accordion) to create multiple landscapes.

Thanks to this overexposure effect, the final result is a series of lanscapes where the edges are uncertain , the mountains and the glaciers are barely visible and almost or totally disappeared.

Also for this series the artist uses light as an artistic medium and as an integral part of the creative process.

From micro to macro, just like with a darkroom enlarger , the idea is to start from a small area to broaden the debate on a subject that concerns all the Alps: Italian, Swiss and French.