Twenty-four melting iceberg pieces have been placed in front of the Tate Modern museum in London, the latest work of Scandinavian artist Olafur Eliasson.
Eliasson partnered with geologist Minik Rosing for the “Ice Watch” installation. Tate Modern said in a news release the two dozen blocks of ice, which weighed between 1.5 and 5 tons when they were installed, were fished out of a fjord in Greenland after detaching from an ice sheet.
The ice melting in Central London is meant as a reminder that more Arctic ice is melting as a result of global warming, contributing to a rise in sea levels.
Tate Modern said Eliasson and Rosing “hope many more people will understand the reality of climate change by experiencing ‘Ice Watch.’”
“Although we may have seen photographs of the melting ice caps, we rarely have a physical experience of these conditions,” Tate Modern said.
Eliason has tackled climate change in past work. In 2015, he put 12 massive blocks of glacial ice on a street in Paris – that ice also was harvested from a fjord in Greenland – as world leaders were about to sign the Paris climate agreement.
Businessman and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited the installation after it was unveiled on Tuesday. His organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies, supported the project.
“Public art reminds us that it’s possible to think differently and boldly,” Bloomberg tweeted on Tuesday, adding he hopes the project inspires “new action on climate.”
Bloomberg also pointed out that the installation is timely, coming as nations continue meeting in Poland at the COP24 climate change conference.
The London installation is free and will be open to the public through December 20.