The French-Swiss artist Julian Charrière is internationally recognised for his critically engaged and conceptually rigorous works exploring the climate crisis. Through immersive installations and a wide range of artistic media – including photography, performance, sculpture, and video – he invites audiences to reflect on humanity's exploitation of natural resources and our impact on the environment and ecosystems.

Charrière studied at Berlin's Universität der Künste, where he attended Olafur Eliasson's renowned Institut für Raumexperimente, graduating in 2013. He continues to live and work in Berlin, but his artistic practice has taken him around the world to sites of major geological and geopolitical significance, including volcanoes, glaciers, and decommissioned oil refineries. He has also ventured into underwater and radioactive environments, often placing himself in extreme conditions in pursuit of his research.

Combining an activist's curiosity with a scientific approach to contemporary art, Charrière explores ideas of nature, deep time, and transformation across millions of years. One of the central ideas underpinning his work is that the past is never truly past. The fossil fuels we consume today, for example, originate from plankton and microorganisms that settled on the ocean floor hundreds of millions of years ago.

Working across disciplines and artistic media, Charrière frequently collaborates with composers, scientists, engineers, art historians, and philosophers. A recurring theme throughout his practice is the notion of exploration in the age of globalisation—its myths, politics, and consequences.
His work has been the subject of major solo exhibitions at leading international institutions, including MONA – Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania (2026–27), SFMOMA, San Francisco (2021), MAMbo, Bologna (2019), Berlinische Galerie, Berlin (2018), and Parasol Unit Foundation, London (2015). He has also participated in the Venice Biennale in 2017 and 2022 and exhibited at institutions including Centre Pompidou, Paris (2019), and Hayward Gallery, London (2018).

The exhibition at ARKEN was the second chapter of the museum's exhibition trilogy NATURE FUTURE, which explores the relationship between humanity, nature, and technology.

Julian Charrière

Born in 1987 in Morges, Switzerland.
Lives and works: Berlin, Germany.
Graduated from Universität der Künste Berlin, completing Olafur Eliasson's Institut für Raumexperimente in 2013.
Has presented solo exhibitions at major museums worldwide, including SFMOMA, San Francisco (2022); Langen Foundation, Neuss (2022); Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas (2021); and MAMbo, Bologna (2019).
Participated in the Venice Biennale in 2017 and 2022.
Solarstalgia at ARKEN was his first solo exhibition in Scandinavia.
He is currently presenting HARD CORE at MONA in Tasmania (through March 2027), featuring both works previously shown at ARKEN and newly commissioned pieces.
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