Ablation Zone

Ablation Zone in RIGA PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL – Riga – Letonia/Latvia

https://www.rigaperformancefestival.com/

Mayo de 2026

Video performance 

Nahuel Sanchez Tolosa feat Ale Montiel

Ablation Zone takes its name from the area of a glacier where mass loss exceeds accumulation. The action takes place at Laguna Torre. In this context, we hold a block of ice that has broken off from the glacier and pass it from hand to hand. The gesture is simple and repetitive: to carry, to receive, to hand over. The intense cold and the wind cut through the scene, inscribing the climatic condition of the territory onto our bodies.

Our bodies operate as a temporary support for a mass destined to disappear. When we finally place it on the ground, there is no restitution or repair; the emphasis falls on fragility.

Ablation Zone operates as a catalyst for the vibratory force of the wind that seeps in, acting as an echo of the memory of the Patagonian Andean forests. This link between human and non-human bodies becomes a resonant chamber activated by the force and sonority of the element of wind in space and time.

The work proposes a tension between human scale and planetary scale. Faced with the magnitude of the glacial landscape, the body appears vulnerable; however, it is also the human body (in its collective and political dimension)that influences the conditions accelerating its disappearance.

In Argentina, the Glacier Law was enacted to protect these strategic water reserves, yet ongoing attempts to modify and loosen its scope reveal its persistent vulnerability to extractive interests. In this context, holding a block of ice becomes an act traversed by an ongoing territorial, environmental, and legal dispute.