Aparicio / Eeraerts

In their practice, situated at the intersection of art and architecture, Roberto Aparicio Ronda and Elise Eeraerts explore spatial issues in an interdisciplinary approach. The history and the material and natural characteristics of sites influence the production of their works. The composition of earth, as a subject of reflection and a material to shape, is one of the themes that runs through the collaboration between Aparicio and Eeraerts. During their stay at Est-Nord-Est, they conducted research on the constructive properties of a substance that is found in great quantities in Québec at the beginning of the year: snow.

After they attended the Winter Festival in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Aparicio and Eeraerts conceived the process key to the intervention that they were involved with for most of their residency. Noting that snow sculptors compress their material to create blocks that they then carve, the duo designed a mould for producing units of snow for assembly. The resulting sculpture evoked a hexagonal tower, open on one side, getting smaller as it rose. The modular principle behind the work suggests, however, that it could potentially be deployed infinitely. In the vast white expanse of the field in which it sat, it looked strangely as if it had come from another environment, even though it had emerged directly from the contingencies of its site.

By spring, it all disappeared. For Aparicio and Eeraerts, this absence of traces is synonymous with respect for the landscape. All that remains is a video that records the fabrication process and shows the completed piece through images filmed from above and below. Certain angles, magnifying the mass of snow and its blueish reflections, give the work an intensely sculptural presence, whereas from other perspectives, revealing negative and positive spaces, it looks more like a shelter.