Abstract Measuring a Nation wants to investigate how climate-driven transformations of Alpine landscapes unsettle established notions of national borders and identity, nation building processes, sovereignty, land ownership, its consequent reshuffling, human migration routes, wildlife corridors and the sense of belonging, and how artistic practice can produce situated knowledge about these interconnected instabilities.
With Measuring a Nation we will not just be documenting these issues but treat the filming process itself as part of the research. We want to work creatively with juxtapositions, where the cinematic devices and creative mapping will be used as measuring instruments themselves to create knowledge about the medium and the environments portrayed.
The project departs from the observation that, in high-mountain environments, political borders are materially and lawfully anchored to natural formations such as glaciers, ridges, and watersheds. As glaciers retreat , landslides increase , and watersheds shift, these formations no longer function as stable reference points. Borders are dynamic, they move, creating legal, political, and symbolic uncertainty. While such processes are documented within geosciences, their broader geopolitical, cultural, and experiential implications remain under-explored, particularly through artistic research.
Using the Alpine Arc as a case study, and the controversy surrounding the national responsibilities for its renovation of the Rifugio CAI Guide del Cervino on the Italian–Swiss border, as a central entry point, the project examines how borders are negotiated, measured, and experienced when the landscape itself is in flux. The Theodul glacier next to the Rifugio is melting, pushing borders along with it. As long as it shifted a dozen meters no one cared, but recent shifts moved the border by more than 150 meters on a lucrative spot, igniting an ownership conflict between Italy and Switzerland.