A thousand little people were seen melting away in the sweltering heat at Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt Square – and there was no saving them, because these little guys were sculptures made out of ice by Brazilian artist, Nele Azevedo.
The Melting Men exhibit is part of the Minimum Monument movement, started by the artist in 2005. However, her first few exhibits, which comprised only of single ice sculptures, was to protest against big monuments, which honor only heroes.
While she still does it to highlight her stance against large monuments, global warming activists have found them to be the ideal icons to highlight our Earth’s plight!
The two have found a perfect way to blend their agendas by holding their exhibitions in large city squares with monuments. The artist has come a long way since her first solitary ice sculpture – her latest exhibits comprise of hundreds of little ice sculptures all gradually ‘dying’ in the sun.
Nele’s first big exhibition took place in Sao Paolo in 2005, with 300 little ice men. The number increased to 400 in Paris and to 500 in Hannover, Germany. By the time she went to the Portuguese city of Porto, she had doubled them to 1,000 and then to an amazing 1,200 in Florence,Italy.
The most recent exhibition comprising of 1,000 sculptures in Berlin, was sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund, to highlight the looming issue of rising ocean levels. The men started to melt within half-an-hour and soon all that was left was a messy pool of water.
And that is just how Nele likes it – she just wants her work, which comprises of ‘normal’ people to be captured on camera for all to enjoy!
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