The Markers Project, an installation by Xavier Cortada, National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Fellow, in the South Pole Station during 2007.

The Markers

National Science Foundation (NSF) Antarctic Artist and Writers Program awardee Xavier Cortada marks the passage of time by exploring important world events that have moved the world forward during the past 50 years.

The South Pole

On December 14, 1911, Norwegian Roald Amundsen was first to reach the South Pole. The geographic South Pole is located near the center of the Antarctic ice sheet at an altitude of 2800 meters. The ice sheet covering the Pole is moving at about 10 m per year toward the Weddell Sea (along the 60 degree West meridian). Each year, staff at the South Pole station reposition the South Pole marker to compensate for the movement of the ice.

On October 31, 1956, Lt. Shinn landed the first plane, "Que Sera Sera," at the South Pole. Three weeks later, on November 20, 1956, the first South Pole station construction crew arrived.

On January 4, 1957, the Navt Seabees crew turned the completed station over to a team of nine scientists, nine support professionals (e.g.: a doctor, a cook) and a dog who wintered over and officially opened the base to scientific exploration.

The Installation

On January 4, 2007, on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the South Pole station, Miami artist Xavier Cortada arrived at the South Pole and planted 51 differently-colored flags along a 500-meter stretch of a moving ice sheet. The last flag was planted where South Pole stood in 1956, when the Pole became permanently inhabited. The first, where the South Pole stands fifty years later.

Each flag is marked with its respective year, and with the coordinates of a place on Earth the artist selected as important in "moving the world forward" during that year (e.g.: 1957 is Sputnik, 1963 is the March on Washington, 1969 is the Lunar Landing, 1997 is the Kyoto Accord) while scientists worked in the South Pole.

The Marker flags were exhibited at the Miami Museum of Science and Planetarium prior to being installed in the South Pole .For more information visit http://www.miamisci.org/www/exhibits/markers/

Cortada's Markers

Xavier Cortada selected the following events to mark how the world has moved forward in the past fifty years:

1956	90°S	90°S	Antarctica	Construction crews arrive at the South Pole
1957	47°50'N 66°03'E	47°50'N 66°03'E	Soviet Union	Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit Earth, is launched into space from Baikonur, USSR
1958	48°52'N 02°20'E	48°52'N 02°20'E	France	Pan Am's transatlantic 707 flight lands in Paris, jet age begins
1959	32°47'N 96°48'W	32°47'N 96°48'W	United States	Microchip is invented
1960	11°21'N 142°12'E	11°21'N 142°12'E	Pacific Ocean	Trieste dives to the bottom of the Mariana Trench: 35,813 feet
1961	47°50'N 66°03'E	47°50'N 66°03'E	Soviet Union	Yuri Gagarin is first man in space (launched from Baikonur)
1962	42°22'N 71°04'W	42°22'N 71°04'W	United States	Rachel Carson's Silent Spring is published
1963	38°53'N 77°02'W	38°53'N 77°02'W	United States	March on Washington for Civil Rights
1964	40°43'N 74°00'W	40°43'N 74°00'W	United States	Beatlemania sweeps America
1965	23°08'N 82°22'W	23°08'N 82°22'W	Cuba	Freedom Flights for Cuban refugees begin
1966	28°40'N 77°13'E	28°40'N 77°13'E	India	Indira Gandhi elected first woman prime minister of India, the world's largest democracy
1967	33°55'S 18°22'E	33°55'S 18°22'E	South Africa	First human heart transplant
1968	55°45'N 37°35'E	55°45'N 37°35'E	Soviet Union	Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signed in Moscow, London and Washington, D.C.
1969	28°24'N 80°36'W	28°24'N 80°36'W	United States	The Eagle lands on the moon (launched from Cape Canaveral)
1970	13°06'N 59°37'W	13°06'N 59°37'W	Barbados	Ra II crosses Atlantic in 57 days
1971	37°21'N 121°16'W	37°21'N 121°16'W	United States	Microprocessor is invented
1972	39°55'N 116°25'E	39°55'N 116°25'E	China	Nixon visits China
1973	33°86'S 151°22'E	33°86'S 151°22'E	Australia	Sydney Opera House is built
1974	08°59'N 40°10'E	08°59'N 40°10'E	Ethiopia	Skeleton of "Lucy," our 3.2 million year old ancestor, is discovered
1975	19°24'N 99°09'W	19°24'N 99°09'W	Mexico	United Nations convenes First World Conference on Women
1976	28°24'N 80°36'W	28°24'N 80°36'W	United States	Viking I and II land on Mars (launched from Cape Canaveral)
1977	01°43'N 44°53'E	01°43'N 44°53'E	Somalia	Smallpox eradicated from Earth
1978	53°33N 02°07'W	53°33N 02°07'W	England	First test tube baby born
1979	40°01'N 105°16'W	40°01'N 105°16'W	United States	Ten independent living centers were founded across the US for persons with disabilities
1980	54°23'N 18°40'E	54°23'N 18°40'E	Poland	Solidarity strikes across Poland
1981	41°08N 73°42'W	41°08N 73°42'W	United States	IBM launches personal computer
1982	50°50'N 0°08'W	50°50'N 0°08'W	England	Whale hunting moratorium enacted
1983	41°54'N 12°27'E	41°54'N 12°27'E	Vatican City	Pope John Paul II retracts the ban on Galileo
1984	37°19'N 122°02'W	37°19'N 122°02'W	United States	Apple Macintosh launched
1985	09°02'N 38°42'E	09°02'N 38°42'E	Ethiopia	Live Aid concerts raise millions to reduce famine
1986	14°37'N 121°00'E	14°37'N 121°00'E	Philippines	Corazon Aquino leads People Power to end Marcos regime in the Philippines
1987	39°46'N 86°09'W	39°46'N 86°09'W	United States	Anti-depressant Prozac is introduced
1988	33°27'S 70°40'W	33°27'S 70°40'W	Chile	Chile plebiscite ends dictatorship, ushers in democracy across South America
1989	52°30'N 13°25'E	52°30'N 13°25'E	Germany	Berlin Wall is knocked down
1990	51°04'N 01°51'E	51°04'N 01°51'E	English Channel	Tunnel links UK and Europe
1991	55°45'N 37°35'E	55°45'N 37°35'E	Russia	Russia becomes "independent" as the Soviet Union collapses
1992	22°53'S 43°06'W	22°53'S 43°06'W	Brazil	First Earth Summit's Rio Declaration has 153 countries focus on sustainable development
1993	40°11'N 88°26'W	40°11'N 88°26'W	United States	World Wide Web browser is created, distributed
1994	25°45'S 28°10'E	25°45'S 28°10'E	South Africa	Apartheid ends in South Africa, Mandela elected president
1995	44°40'N 111°06'W	44°40'N 111°06'W	United States	Grey wolves return to the American West
1996	76°43'S 159°40'E	76°43'S 159°40'E	Antarctica	NASA announces that the Antarctic's ALH 84001meteorite points to existence of life on Mars
1997	35°00'N 135°45'E	35°00'N 135°45'E	Japan	Kyoto Protocol enacted
1998	03°10'N 101°42'E	03°10'N 101°42'E	Malaysia	Petronas Towers topped at 1483 ft., the tallest building at that time
1999	09°32'N 21°72'E	09°32'N 21°72'E	Egypt	Breitling Orbiter 3 hot air balloon sails non-stop around the world
2000	33°52'S 151°13'E	33°52'S 151°13'E	Australia	Cathy Freeman, the Aboriginal runner, wins Olympic gold
2001	12°03'S 77°03'W	12°03'S 77°03'W	Peru	A 4,000-year-old site yielded the remains of the oldest known city in the New World
2002	15°46'S 47°55'W	15°46'S 47°55'E	Brazil	Brazil Soccer wins 5th World Cup
2003	52°13N 00°08'W	52°13N 00°08'W	England	Human Genome Project completed
2004	37°23'N 122°05'W	37°23'N 122°05'W	United States	Google, digital music, wireless technologies and blogs boomed
2005	20°24'N 03°41'W	20°24'N 03°41'W	Spain	Spain ends all discrimination based on sexual orientation
2006	TBA	0°0'N 0°0'W	Easter Island	Scientists discover new species
2007:		The beginning of a 150,000-year Journey At the location of the 2007 Geographic South Pole marker, the artist planted a mangrove seedling from Miami's Biscayne Bay, 25°46'N 80°12'W. ( Cortada's "150,000-year Journey" project also addresses the passage of time, asking us to see time in geologic instead of human time frames. To learn more about the 150,000-year Journey, please visit http://www.cortada.com/antarctica/journey. )

About the Installation

Xavier Cortada's installation highlights events that have moved our world forward in the time it has taken the Antarctic ice sheet to move about 500 meters. Cortada chronicles the passage of time by depicting those events on flags he placed at the South Pole on January 4, 2007. To accomplish this, the artist:

Created 51differently colored flags, ranging from violet to red, each sequentially representing years from 1956 to 2006.
Marked each flag with the coordinates of a place where an event took place that moved the world forward during that given year (e.g., 1963's March on Washington, 1989's Fall of the Berlin Wall).
Planted each year's flag in the location on the ice where all the meridians converged during that flag's respective year; that is, where the South Pole stood during that given year. (Since the South Pole, 90°S, sits on a glacier that is in constant motion, its location on the ice above changes every year).

When the flags were planted they created a spectrum of color on the white surface of the ice. The first flag was planted at the location of the 2006 Geographic South Pole, with each subsequent flag spaced 9.9 meters apart and aligned in the direction of the Weddell Sea. Since the glacier below is moving everything in the same direction at 9.9 meters annually, the flags "mark" where the South Pole stood in any given year-- few places on Earth can so dramatically mark the passage of time.

Left: The Markers' flags on display at the Miami Museum of Science before being installed by the artist in the South Pole.

Please click here to read artist's blog from Antarctica

xavier cortada
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Xavier Cortada's work has been shown across the Americas, Europe, Africa and Antarctica and locally in the Miami Art Museum, the Miami Museum of Science & Planetarium and the Bass Museum of Art. The Miami artist has been commissioned to create art for the White House, the Florida Supreme Court, Miami City Hall, the Museum of Florida History and the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Cortada's work is also in the permanent collection of The World Bank.

For more information, please visit http://www.cortada.com.

Copyright © 1997-2007 by Xavier Cortada.
All rights reserved.

Email:
xavier@cortada.com