The Gallery of the Polar Travellers
The gallery of the Polar Travellers comprises portraits of 24 meaningful men in polar expedition. It begins with Giovanni Cabato who was a contemporary of Christoph Kolumbus during late 15th century and reaches all the way to Robert F. Scott in the early 20th century, Scott to be the last expeditor of the classic research. Thereafter machines took over the performance of further research.
Each of the men stands for exemplary heroic deeds, each of them took threatening life risks, imposed privations and agony upon oneself, and many never returned from the ice. All of them are heroes, not one of them was less heroic than an other.
Measuring the biographies behind the faces, the peaks as well as the abysms of the human-, in particular the male soul, become accessible. Striving for a goal no matter how high the price may be, the inventiveness, boldness, toughness necessary, in order to overcome adverse hindrance, undergoing worst agony and ruthless consequence to achieve the project – Hardness, the cold, hunger and pain, that is the world of the Polar Expedition.
The Polar Regions represent the border areas of the earth. Areas where every calculation of times, cardinal direction becomes uncertain, where atmospheric conditions are inhospitable, making any form of life impossible, where everlasting darkness darkens the mind. In this setting a male soul can develop into a dazzle.
Above all, world history develops in expeditions. Polar Travels were always pricy and full of risks. They only took place if one had to or could afford to do so. Initially the impulse came from economic ambition, followed by national prestige or the individual ego of the men, then again the economical appetite. Polar Expedition was never free of virtue.