BIG ACE Premiere Opens at Melting Ice, Sinking Cities II: The Arctic Impact
BIG ACE Premiere Opens at Melting Ice, Sinking Cities II: The Arctic Impact
5 February 2026 | CDL Green Gallery, Singapore Botanic Gardens
Singapore, 5 February 2026 — After 23 months of preparation, the collective actions, courage, and voices of 98 Climate Avengers from 20 nations will be unveiled for the first time at the world premiere of the Bears Ice Glaciers Arctic Climate Expedition (BIG ACE). The premiere takes place at the opening of Melting Ice, Sinking Cities – Climate Exhibition #2: The Arctic Impact, hosted at the CDL Green Gallery.
This landmark exhibition marks a defining moment in global climate storytelling—bringing first-hand testimony from the rapidly changing Arctic to the heart of Singapore.
World Premiere Screenings
Coinciding with the exhibition opening, three specially produced short films will premiere:
Voices for the Voiceless
Featuring the next-generation members of the 98 Climate Avengers, this powerful film is a call to action—urging humanity to lend its voice to nature that cannot speak. It gives presence to animals losing their homes to climate change, including polar bears, ivory gulls, bearded seals, and puffins. Voices for the Voiceless is also the theme song for the forthcoming BIG ACE feature documentary.
The Arctic Symphony
Performed by Hillary Yifei O’Sullivan, this cinematic work reveals the state of Svalbard under accelerating climate change, as witnessed by the Climate Avengers. The film documents a world-first: the landing of a grand piano on moving Arctic pack ice and a live performance at nearly 82°N, a record set during BIG ACE expedition.
Qivittoq – Dance of an Entangled Spirit
Performed by Galya Morrell, a native of Greenland and Siberia, this haunting work blends Indigenous memory, movement, and lived experience. Filmed on Arctic sea ice, the performance confronts entanglement, suffocation, and loss—giving visceral form to what Arctic wildlife endures in a polluted, warming world.
About the Exhibition
In the High Arctic of Svalbard, the BIG ACE expedition aboard the MV Sylvia Earle (operated by Aurora Expeditions) ventured into uncharted waters that did not exist just five years ago. In the last three decades, 90% of the North Pole’s ice platform has vanished. The region is now warming nearly seven times faster than the global average, with cascading impacts far beyond the poles.
Melting Ice, Sinking Cities II brings the Arctic crisis closer to home. Through striking photography, immersive visuals, and frontline narratives, the exhibition reveals how collapsing ice, fragile ecosystems, and vulnerable polar communities are directly linked to climate risks faced by coastal cities, including Singapore, San Francisco, Shanghai, Sydney, and New York. The works—created by the 98 expedition members—are not distant observations, but testimonies from the edge of a changing world.
This exhibition opens on 5 February and will run till July 2026.
Opening Ceremony
- Guest-of-Honour: Alvin Tan, Minister of State for National Development and the Ministry of Trade and Industry
- Special Guests: Sylvia Earle, legendary marine conservationist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence; Michael Aw, Founder of Ocean Geographic and leader of the BIG ACE mission
Date: Thursday, 5 February 2026
Time: 9.30 am
Venue: Singapore Botanic Gardens, 1 Cluny Road
(Closest MRT: TEL Napier Station | Enter via Tanglin Gate)
A Defining Moment
This exhibition marks a defining moment—as awareness is raised, dialogue is catalysed, and voices are given to ecosystems and future generations who cannot speak for themselves.
“As the Arctic melts faster than anywhere on Earth, 98 Climate Avengers journey to the edge of the North Pole to bear witness—revealing how the collapse of polar ice is reshaping cities, ecosystems, and our shared future.”