This is where man and nature, animal and sensuality converge in primal, mystical and unpredictable ways. Ashes and Snow globe trots with installations as bewitching as the photos, music, media and stories beyond the entrance. See the site www.ashesandsnow.com and follow the nomad where continents, elements, species and magic bring life to the surface.
All photos by Greggory Colbert
About The Nomadic Museum
Gregory Colbert originally conceived of the idea for a sustainable traveling museum in 1999. He envisioned a structure that could easily be assembled in ports of call around the world, providing a transitory environment for his work on its global journey. The first public installation of Ashes and Snow at the Arsenale in Venice, which opened in 2002, inspired the architectural concepts used in the Nomadic Museum.
Colbert transformed the interior of the Venice Arsenale using atmospheric elements including stone, curtains made from one million pressed paper tea bags from Sri Lanka, and minimalist lighting techniques. Built in 1104, the Arsenale was originally used to assemble and launch boats to sea via the Venetian canals. The interior architecture of the structure provided an ideal setting for Ashes and Snow, as the monumental space graciously accommodated Colbert's large-format photographic artworks and films. The show was a critical and popular success, and remains
the most attended exhibition by any single artist in Italy.
The first Nomadic Museum debuted with the opening of Ashes and Snow on the Hudson River Park's Pier 54 in New York City in March 2005. The museum then traveled to Santa Monica, California, in January 2006, Tokyo, Japan, in March 2007, and Mexico City in January 2008. To date, more than nine and a half million people have attended the exhibition.
Ashes and Snow in Mexico City closed on April 27, 2008. It was exhibited in a newly designed bamboo Nomadic Museum designed by Simón Vélez, a Colombian architect. The museum occupied 5,130-square meters (55,219- square feet) containing two galleries and three distinct theatres. The sustainable design utilized bamboo and shipping containers as primary components, along with recycled and/or reusable materials. Inside the museum, two galleries extending 114 meters were bordered on either side by wathttp://exuvia.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/elephant-girl-ashes-and-snow.jpg?w=460er, over which the unframed artworks were suspended between bamboo columns. Short haiku films are shown in continuous loops in theaters at the end of each gallery. The full-length feature film was projected in the large central theater.
For the first time, the Nomadic Museum incorporated water as a design element to recall the
unique history of the Zócalo, which was once surrounded by canals. This architectural choice honored the symbolic significance of the Zócalo as the center of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, a city founded by the Aztecs on a small island in the middle of Lake Texcoco in 1325.
Like other elements of Ashes and Snow, the museum is an on-going project that will transform in each location to adapt to its environment and the evolving artistic content of the exhibition itself. Colbert will continue to collaborate with innovative architects to integrate the most recent advances in sustainable architecture and give new expression
to the museum as it travels.
