Alter-

A high mountain art and research residency program responding to the impact of environmental crises on communities in the Swiss Alps.

ALTER- is a two- to three-month residency in Chandolin, a village perched at an altitude of 2,000 meters in the Val d’Anniviers, that invites one transdisciplinary team of artists and researchers a year to rethink and respond to growing environmental crises and their associated social, economic, and cultural shifts. Each team will spend nine to twelve weeks exploring the valley, learning from local villagers, developing work that will be publicly shared on a weekly basis, and presenting a final project. While the residency builds on this locale, the work and wisdom generated by each team could have far-reaching implications for high-mountain communities around the world.

Topics

What’s happening to the cycle of seasons in the Alps as the frozen earth thaws? How will the loss of glaciers affect water availability for farming and hydroelectricity? How do the inhabitants of the valley revive and transmit intangible heritage such as the gathering and cultivation of wild plants? What is gone, and what has taken its place? How can we live together with more-than-humans in the land we share?

This is just a sampling of questions ALTER-, a three-month residency responding to the environmental crises in the Alps, invites each team selected annually to explore. Now, more than ever, we need transdisciplinary artists and researchers to challenge our perceptions of the rapidly evolving climate paradigm and motivate us to find new knowledge and new ways of living.