Exhibitions

Bonjour Expeditioner!

Opens 24-08-2022,  closes 25-09-2022

Central Gallery

How long would it take to swim to Antarctica? Do penguins dream about planets?

These are just some of the curious questions Tasmanian primary school students exchanged with French and Italian Antarctic expeditioners in hotel quarantine in Hobart from October 2021 to January 2022.

Bonjour Expeditioner is an exhibition featuring some of the delightful 700 postcards and drawings which provided plenty of smiles and relief for international expeditioners when strict COVID-19 protocols kept them locked down for two weeks before heading south. The expeditioners replied to the students with their own postcards, drawings and answers to the probing questions. Many expeditioners later sent back ‘selfies’ from Antarctica.

Bonjour Expeditioner is a collaboration between the Tasmanian Polar Network, the French Antarctic Program, Lansdowne Crescent Primary School and Antarctic Tasmania.

Image: courtesy of expeditioner Jérôme Fournier