In April 1815 the volcano Mount Tambora, situated on Sumbawa Island in Indonesia, erupted into flames, ash and lava, its effects rippling around the globe. In the Canton of Valais, Switzerland, a neighboring glacier expanded through the summer of 1816 causing the Lac de Mauvoisin to overflow its banks. Julian Charrière's new works, An Invitation to Disappear, move, as Dehlia Hannah writes, along the historical and geographical path between Tambora and the Alps, between 1818 and 2018," tracing the entangled threads of climate devastation, monocultural farming, and an imaginary in which apocalyptic ecological threats find poetic utterance in the aesthetic of the sublime. A series of installations of the works were installed at Kunsthalle Mainz, on the dam of Mauvoisin and at Musée de Bagnes, comprising dystopic installations and an absurdist film centered around the palm oil plantations that now carpet the flanks of Mount Tambora.
With texts in English by Stefanie Böttcher and Dehlia Hannah, including 2 postcards and an insert with a French translation of Hannah's text. Published to coincide with exhibitions at the Mauvoisin Dam, the Museum of Bagnes in Le Châble, and Kunsthalle Mainz."