The Climate Experiment
2018

A film about the Swedish artist duo Bigert & Bergström’s climate-related art, which for three decades has been inspired by research on the effects of climate on humanity and vice versa.

The Climate Experiment tells the story of the growing realization of our own role in the changing climate. Our interference in the atmospheric cocktail could be described as the greatest experiment in human history. An experiment whose outcome is highly uncertain.

The film presents the lurking awareness of our own role in the change of climate. The title refers to the kind of research that challenged the conception of nature as an inexhaustible resource, but also to the artists’ own work with various geo-engineering projects, in which they try to deal with the effects of an increasingly heated atmosphere.

In the film we follow Mats Bigert and Lars Bergström during the last year’s research journeys, major exhibitions, inaugurals of public works and meetings with journalists, environmental historians and climate researchers. Can the artist be a social-minded researcher? Can contemporary art draw attention to problems in new ways and thus affect public opinion? The movie is an attempt to answer these questions.

Still from the film. Bigert & Bergström in National Ice Core Laboratory, Denver, Colorado, USA
Still from the film. "Adrenaline Dream"
Still from the film. Noor Solar Power Plant Ouarzazate, Morocco
Artists' sketch, tableaux Joseph Fourier
Artists' sketch, tableaux Louis Agassiz

PROCESS photos 

Photos: Lars Siltberg

Excerpts from the film

Louise Agassiz - erratic boulder
Global warming

SCREENINGS

Skissernas Museum Lund, 31 May 2018 
(Premier screening)

TV Premiere Sweden 
SVT2, 01 June 2018

22nd Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
25-30 October 2018
American Swedish Institute Minnesota
7 March 2019

CPH:DOX 19 International Film Festival Copenhagen
20-31 March 2019

Metakino Festival Helsinki
4-5 October 2019

Møre og Romsdal Kunstsenter (Molde, Norway)
19 January 2023

CREDITS

"The Climate Experiment," 2018 
58 min. HD
Written and directed by
Bigert & Bergström

Produced by
Bigert & Bergström

Cinematography
Lars Siltberg

Editing
Kristofer Nordin

Original music
Carl Michael von Hausswolff
with David Österberg and Anna von Hausswolff

Sound design
Carl Michael von Hausswolff and David Österberg

Graphic design
Björn Kusoffsky
Stockholm Design Lab

Visual effects
Adam Marko-Nord
Alphaville

Studio and editing assistant
Hugo Hedberg

Grading
Carl Skaff
Chimney

Sound design and mix
Thomas Huhn
Chimney

Translations
Jennifer Evans

The Climate Experiment is produced by 
Bigert & Bergström in co-production with 
SVT/K Special, Emelie Persson

©Bigert & Bergström & SVT 2018

Interviews in the film with Bigert & Bergström
Sara Arrhenius, Royal Institute of Art , Stockholm
Jerry Carlsson & Anette Sidor, Verket Produktion
Mari Linnman, 3-ca, Paris
Monica Anjefelt & Pia Lehto, Kobra, SVT


Special Thanks

Henric Larsson, Chimney
Kaimei Olsson Wang, Shanghai
CIRC, Abisko
Futurniture, Stockholm
Riksbyggen
Sara Arrhenius, Konsthögskolan, Stockholm
Art & Theory, Stockholm
Jerry Carlsson & Anette Sidor, Verket Produktion
Personalen på Hôpital Delafontaine, Paris
Mari Linnman, 3-ca, Paris
Serge Damon
Estelle Lacombe
National Science Foundation and U.S.Geological Survey
Marmor & Granit, Kristianstad
Power Ekroth, Oslo Kommun
Monica Anjefelt & Pia Lehto, KOBRA
Artipelag
Hangmen
Lena Wallersten, The Diplomatic Forum
Masen, Ouarzazate
Cleanergy