Jessie Kleemann

An iceberg that breathes

Description of the exhibition

"Like a small iceberg floating
with the current, melting
into the massive
water floating"

In her first poetry collection, Taallat – Digte – Poems, published in 1997, Jessie Kleemann wrote these lines, which echo today in her installation ILULIAQ (2024), a six-metre inflatable iceberg that slowly breathes. Monumental in scale, the kinetic sculpture is an active reminder of the ongoing climate crisis in the landscapes of Kleemann’s native Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland). In her simple and poetic gesture, Kleemann gives life to the iceberg, imbuing it with the kind of energy, urgency, and even agency needed to alert us to the current catastrophe.

As it repeatedly rises and falls, ILULIAQ embodies the precipitated ice melt, sea-level rise, and coastal erosion that is felt from Kleemann’s birthplace in the town of Upernavik to shores all over the globe. This work is part of the ongoing fight led by Indigenous activists to protect their land rights and resources.

Like a small iceberg floating along the shores of the St. Lawrence River, ILULIAQ is being presented for the first time outside of Denmark. In this new context, it comes into dialogue with the nordicity and spectacle of Québec City’s iconic winter carnival. But instead of the caricatural ice hotel, Kleeman’s installation overtly signals a serious environmental and geopolitical reality. Through the prism of a gentle giant, ILULIAQ continues to melt “into the massive water floating.”

Biography

Jessie Kleemann

(Born in Upernavik, Greenland – Lives in Copenhagen, Denmark)

Jessie Kleemann’s practice is based on the complex relationships and exchanges between cultures; she explores the ways in which Greenlandic Inuit identity and tradition, the body, land, and language change over time. Her work is modelled on an expressive approach to video art, experimental theatre, feminism, the body, and performance art. She is a recent recipient of the Eckersberg Medal from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in recognition of her lifetime achievement as an artist, and her work has been widely exhibited across the globe.

Visitor Information

Espace Quatre Cents

• Address: 100 quai Saint-André, Québec (Québec) G1K 3Y2
• Public transportation: accessible via several RTC lines; direct access via the Old Port bike pat
• Parking: paid parking nearby (Old Port, docks, private parking lots)
• Accessibility: adapted entrance, ramps, easy access for people with reduced mobility