Michael Najjar

08 June, 2022

Arctic expedition

In May 2022 Michael Najjar went on an adventurous expedition into the high Arctic. The artist was on board of the expedition ship MS Villa and traveled for 10 days along the west coast of Svalbard high up to the 80th degree of latitude until reaching the pack ice coming from the North Pole. The challenging expedition was part of the artist's new series "cool earth" which deals with our planetary future in times of climate change. New artworks based on the shooting in the Arctic will be released soon.

The Arctic is the epicenter of climate change. No other part of our planet is warming up as quickly, and the changes are already dramatic. At the same time, the Arctic is the area of our planet that we understand the least. Svalbard is the fastest warming place on the planet. Climate change is happening here in fast motion, between 1971 and 2017, the average temperature on this archipelago, less than a thousand kilometers south of the North Pole, rose by 4 degrees celsius. On average, winters have become almost ten degrees warmer over the past 30 years. It is likely to happen that the Arctic will soon be completely ice-free in summer.

Why are temperatures warming faster in the Arctic than the rest of the world? Because of a process called "polar amplification". The loss of sea ice is one of the most important reasons. When bright and reflective ice melts, it gives way to a darker ocean; this amplifies the warming trend because the ocean surface absorbs more heat from the Sun than the surface of snow and ice. Losing sea ice reduces Earth’s albedo, the lower the albedo, the more a surface absorbs heat from sunlight rather than reflecting it back to space.

The melting process of glaciers has shot up by a fivefold over the past four decades and is now accelerating exponentially. The polar regions have lost 28 trillion tons of ice mass in the past 30 years. Since the global temperature will continue to rise, continuation of this melting process is inevitable. If critical tipping points are reached in the polar region, this could lead to the collapse of the massive ice sheets.

The expedition was organized by Secret Atlas, the company is specialized in small ship polar expeditions. The artist wants to thank especially Andy Marsh and Michele D'Agostino, founders of Secret Atlas, as well as the whole crew of the MS Villa for their fantastic support during this epic expedition.

Arctic expedition

Michael Najjar nominated for Prix Pictet

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Exhibition at Fotografiska Stockholm

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Lecture Astronomy Museum Shanghai

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Symposium "Enter the Future"

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Exhibition at ArtScience Museum, Singapore

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Podcast "Fotografie neu denken"

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Nanjing Artfair, China

Wired UK magazine

Ars Electronica Festival - Who owns the truth?

Final test flight of Spaceship Unity

Civilization exhibition at Saatchi Gallery, London

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ART SG Singapore

"cool earth" exhibition at Studio la Città Gallery

Screening at COP27

Lecture at Deutsche Museum München

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Frieze Seoul

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"FUTURO" exhibition at Galleri d'Italia, Vincenza

"Space Works" exhibition at Tampere Art Museum, Finland

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VSS Unity - Welcome to Space !