"ONE SECOND" art installation – the Arctic melt in Munich

If the city of Munich were made of ice, it would disappear in less than 18 hours. And before all you football fans become indignant, it's just an arithmetic game! But anyone who wants to see how much Arctic ice melts in just one second should pay a visit to Munich's Olympic Park (Olympiapark München).

4819.19 m2 – that is how much ice is melting in the Arctic each second1; this direct consequence of the global climate change has shocked and inspired the artist Janine Mackenroth. Sice Saturday, 12 October, she makes this incredible fact tangible, right in Munich's Olympic Park with her installation "ONE SECOND".

The symbol "I" covers exactly this space with white paint. The installation invites visitors to touch and walk through as well as to start mind gaming: At that rate, the whole city of Munich would melt completely in less than 18 hours. "I" has two semantic levels in this context. Read as the Roman numeral for "1", it refers to one second. Likewise, its common meaning as a personal pronoun also alludes to the fact that each and every one of us causes and is responsible for man-made climate change.

The installation will be accessible for visitors in Munich's Olympic Park until 27 October. "I would like to have the opportunity to inform as many people as possible about the project's message, namely the protection of the environment and our climate," says the artist inviting visitors.

myclimate supports the project contentwise in addition to being a sponsor. Raising awareness for climate change in society and at the same time appealing to the responsibility of everyone are key concerns of myclimate," emphasises Stefan Baumeister, managing director of myclimate Germany gGmbH. Visitors can easily calculate their own CO₂ emissions and offset them directly at <link www.onesecond.info - external-link-new-window>onesecond.info</link>.

Last year, Janine Mackenroth caused quite a stir with her happening <link www.youtube.com/watch - external-link-new-window>"BREAKING BREAD"</link>. She detonated 194 old loaves of bread – symbolising the world's 194 nations - arranged as a map of the earth. Every three seconds one loaf exploded, the same time interval it takes for someone somewhere in the world to die from the effects of famine.

1 The number is calculated by comparing the data of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado for ice melting over the last five years. Starting from an all-time low of 4.17 million km2 on 18 September 2007 to an all-time low of 3.41 million km2 on 16 September 2012, this amounts to a decrease of 760.000km2 within the space of 5 years.

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