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Pima hosts ICE sculpture by renowned Tucson-based Swiss artist, Oct. 2

ICE, built to melt in real time, headlines Sculpture-On-Campus 2020

Sept. 30, 2020

Tucson, AZ – Pima Community College’s Sculpture-on-Campus 2020 heats up Oct. 2 with a novel new sculpture made of ice that will begin melting away from the first moments of its creation.

Entitled ICE, a wall of large ice blocks will be constructed under the Tucson sun and offer viewers an experience of how space and time can collapse and elapse, in what the artist Olivier Mosset calls “entropy.”

  • Where: East Campus, 8181 E. Irvington Road, in the Library Courtyard
  • When: Friday, Oct. 2. Trucks containing the ice should arrive 7-7:30 a.m. The sculpture should take 1-2 hours to construct.
  • Details:
    • Media welcome at the installation but are asked to contact Libby Howell beforehand.
    • Once the sculpture is constructed at about 9 a.m. Oct. 2, PCC will present a live feed of the life of ICE as it shrinks into oblivion. View the live feed from the PCCTV YouTube homepage: https://www.youtube.com/c/pcctvstream.
    • On Oct. 29, at the formal opening of Sculpture-on-Campus 2020, a time-lapse video will be made available to interested media.
    • Olivier Mosset will be at the installation Oct. 2 and will be available for interviews.

Once assembled, ICE will be 20 inches thick, 80 inches tall and 120 inches wide. It will be stable throughout its estimated 24-48 hour lifespan but ultimately will evaporate without a trace, says Mosset.

According to the Museum of Contemporary and Modern Art in Geneva, “Olivier Mosset (b.1944) is one of the central figures in post-war abstract painting, and a pivotal reference for generations of European and American painters.” Mosset has installed ice sculptures at exhibits around the U.S. and the world since at least 2003.

“Olivier Mosset’s ephemeral, contextually viewer driven ice construction will stream to art and student audiences here and beyond our community’s boundaries throughout its brief existence -- reminding us that visual art is irreplaceable and transformative expression that resides equally in artist and viewer alike,” says Michael Stack, Art Faculty at East Campus and coordinator of Sculpture-on-Campus.

About Sculpture-on-Campus

Since 2004, Pima's Sculpture-On-Campus initiative has provided an exciting opportunity for artists to present their contemporary outdoor sculptures to the public in a beautiful, educational setting.

 “This year’s exciting installment of Sculpture-On-Campus again presents Tucson with the diverse possibilities of 3-D art with large outdoor sculptures that take many forms -- from a giant shopping cart to a tower of knees to a wall of ice,” Stack says.

“All seven of the new works by eight different artists in the exhibition depicts and reflects issues and ideas that matter to our lives today. Sculpture-On-Campus 2020 takes the experience online where visitors can experience the art remotely.”

Learn more at the Sculpture-on-Campus webpage at pima.edu.

CONTACT:

Libby Howell, APR, Executive Director

Media, Government and Community Relations

520-549-9093, ehowell1@pima.edu

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