Magdalena Jetelová
Iceland Project , 1992
Lightbox, archival pigment print on acrylic, black aluminium frame
170 x 125 x 5 cm
66.93 × 49.21 × 1.97 in
66.93 × 49.21 × 1.97 in
Edition 2/5
©The Artist
The Central Atlantic Shelf is an approximately 15,000 kilometer-long mountain range,mostly hidden at the bottom of the ocean. From the geological point of view it forms thedividing line between Europe...
The Central Atlantic Shelf is an approximately 15,000 kilometer-long mountain range,mostly hidden at the bottom of the ocean. From the geological point of view it forms thedividing line between Europe and America. This is a seam along the place where millionsyears ago two continents were torn apart. Today weknow that the Central Atlantic Shelf is part of a biggersystem which circles the entire globe for nearly 70,000kilometers. It goes from Iceland to the north betweenSpitzbergen and Greenland, continuing through theArctic Ocean to the mouth of the Lena River in Siberia.In the southern direction, it goes from Iceland eastwardalong the southern end of Africa, continuing to thenorth through the Indian Ocean. Iceland is the onlyplace where the Central Atlantic Shelf goes above thesea.The geological border between Europe and America canbe seen with the naked eye for about 350 kilometers inthe form of a range which cuts through Iceland in a north-eastern direction. Both landmasses are still moving, shifting and bumping into one another. Therefore the whole areais seismically active with a number hot springs and active volcanoes.The light line of the laser beam draws the border between the two continents. The formof the exact direct line is all the time freshly defined by its touch with the terrain – it goesthrough the raw landscape along the lava fields, through cracks disappearing in the mistof hot steam from geysers. The computer-determined precise line of a geological event inancient time that has formed our world of today.
