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NORTH ADAMS, Mass.—The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA), in collaboration with MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) in North Adams, will present the exhibition Ohan Breiding: Belly of a Glacier, a series of photographs and video that ruminates on the imminent loss of the Rhône glacier, amplifying the current state of climate emergency while expressing the intimate entanglement of human and environmental well-being. The exhibition is on view at MASS MoCA from February 1 through December 14, 2025.
In 2019, Iceland constructed the first memorial to mark the death of its Okjökull glacier. Since then, funerals have been held around the world to mark the melting of glacier bodies. Consisting of an experimental documentary film and a photographic installation, Breiding’s Belly of a Glacier captures the efforts of the residents of Obergoms, Switzerland, to drape the nearby Rhône Glacier with thermal blankets to insulate it from rising temperatures. Despite these hope-filled actions of ecological care, scientists predict the Rhône will have fully melted by 2050.
“Ohan Breiding’s work is a powerful, intimate portrait of a dying glacier,” said Susan Cross, MASS MoCA Senior Curator. “The stunning photographs and video make the loss feel very personal—as it should, given that we are part of the ecosystem being forever transformed by climate change.”
The film documents the community at the National Science Foundation’s Ice Core Facility in Lakewood, Colorado, who are preserving ancient ice cores for future generations. Ice is like a time capsule, storing atmospheric debris, including volcanic ash and greenhouse gasses, that can tell us about major natural disasters as well as resulting human activity over thousands over years. Breiding’s project connects acts of mourning to ongoing practices of care that strive to protect the ice — a material that contains both remnants of the past and the conditions of a future world.
“WCMA and MASS MoCA joining together to present Ohan Breiding’s deeply moving and thought-provoking installation exemplifies the best of what our Berkshire arts ecosystem can provide to our visitors and local community,” said Pamela Franks, WCMA Class of 1956 Director. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate across institutions in this way.”
MASS MoCA is located at 1040 MASS MoCA Way in North Adams, Mass. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Monday, closed Tuesday. General admission is $25 for adults, $22 for seniors 65+ and veterans, $15 for students with ID and $10 for children 6-16. Students and staff from Williams College, MCLA, Bennington College, and Yale University receive free museum admission upon presenting their school ID at the Box Office on the day of their visit. For more information, visit massmoca.org.
About the artist
Ohan Breiding is a Swiss-American artist, raised in a Swiss village and living between Brooklyn, N.Y., and Williamstown, MA. They work with photography, photographic and filmic archives, and video in a collaborative practice that reinterprets historical events, putting the past into a meaningful transformative relation with the present. They employ a trans-feminist lens to the discussion of ecological care to amplify the systemic failures and violence of the Anthropocene.
Breiding has presented their work at numerous museums, galleries, and film festivals including ICA LA, Photo LA, the Armory Center for the Arts, LAMAG, LAXART, Human Resources, Oakland Museum of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Haus N Athens, Sharjah Art Foundation, IKOB Museum of Contemporary Art, Kunsthaus Zürich, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center (Buffalo, N.Y.), Frac des Pays de la Loire and Oceanside Museum (as part of the Getty’s PST Art — Pacific Standard Time).
Breiding is a 2024 A.I.R. Fellow, a 2024 FIAR resident, a 2024 Triangle Artist Resident, a 2021 TBA (Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary) Academy Ocean Space Fellow, a 2019 Millay Colony Resident and a 2018 Shandaken: Storm King resident. They are the recipient of the 1945 World Fellowship Award, the Hellman Award, the SIFF (Swiss International Film Festival) Award for The Rebel Body, a short film made with Shoghig Halajian and the participation of Silvia Federici, the Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Award, and the DAAD Award. Their practice has been written about in Artforum, Art in America, BOMB, e-flux, Hyperallergic and Whitewall.
Breiding is an assistant professor in the Art Department at Williams College and is represented by OCHI Gallery in Los Angeles.
About Williams College Museum of Art
The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) creates and inspires transformative experiences that are integral to a liberal arts education, lifelong learning, and human connection. The museum catalyzes cross-disciplinary inquiry through art; advances the academic and experiential preparation of arts leaders; enriches the cultural ecosystem of the Berkshires; engages artists; and creates a learning community that spurs new thinking, creative activity, and civic engagement. WCMA draws on the diverse perspectives and collaborative ethos of the College to enliven the more than 15,000 works in its growing collection.
Construction has begun on WCMA’s first purpose-built home, designed by the internationally recognized Brooklyn-based firm SO–IL. The design, unveiled in March 2024, blends sustainable, living architecture with the Berkshires landscape while creating a teaching museum for the entire campus and a prominent new gateway to the College and Williamstown. The new WCMA is projected to open in 2027.
WCMA is currently open in its Lawrence Hall home in a limited footprint with Object Lab, featuring rotating selections from the collection chosen in collaboration with faculty across disciplines. Public hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
