The Possibility of an Island

The human body works particularly well at altitudes similar to those at sea level, where the atmospheric pressure and the percentage of oxygen in the air are high. This is largely because, throughout history, the spread of humans over the earth’s surface has been principally guided by a logic of horizontality: groups mainly settled in plains and valleys, they plied the seas to inhabit islands, and many civilisations chose to put down roots at altitudes close to those of sea level. Nonetheless, humans have also shown a stubborn interest in exploring, conquering, and, as far as possible, occupying other places found on the earth’s vertical axis: high mountains, ocean depths... As Gideonsson/Londré suggest, the colonialist urge that led European nations to dominate remote islands later developed into a nationalist drive to climb mountains, once the possibility of conquering the world horizontally had dwindled. But this “vertical colonialism” has always been kept in check by the fact that humans are physically unequipped for extreme depths and heights. Mountain climbers use the terms “vertical limit” and “death zone” to refer to areas more than 8,000 metres above sea level: altitudes where the level of oxygen in the blood drops drastically and it is very difficult to breathe. In other words, the start of the death zone is the upper limit for the existence of conditions that are favourable to human life. Beyond this point, inside the death zone, it is difficult for human beings to survive. Gideonsson/Londré have investigated the effects of high altitudes on human beings and the way they favour states of isolation. The artists experienced these effects in person by engaging in mountain climbing expeditions and indoor training sessions simulating some of the conditions associated with these limit zones. Their project for Espai 13 is a video installation that explores the notion of vertically and also invites us to think of the world’s highest mountains as islands, based on the fact that many of them were in fact once islands, and that some high mountain ranges have, functionally speaking, become land islands. The artists suggest that the horizontality of the sea leads us to see mountains as mountains, and islands as islands. If we ignore this marine division, the distinction between these geographical features begins to blur.