Dynamic Durationality: Art As Infrastructure In The Age Of Climate Politics

Abstract

Discussions of site orientation in public art have often been framed by contrasting the temporal notions of permanence and temporariness. This article leans on cross-disciplinary theorization of infrastructure—and its attention to climate change—to suggest that we see a new type of artistic interest in reengaging with permanence in the form of infrastructure development and maintenance. Specifically, the article analyzes the case of Super Reef, an artistic project that aspires to construct at least fifty-five km2 of reef along the coastline of Denmark. The article unpacks the material, social, political, and aesthetic dimensions of Super Reef as performing a dynamic durationality of interspecies infrastructure. This dynamic durationality implies a recognition of the always-already-provisional and precarious quality of any infrastructure project, while still invoking aspirations for long-term commitment to reconcile, repair, and maintain multispecies environments. If site orientations in the 1990s and early 2000s favored temporary, mobile, and social forms of artistic interventions, contemporary site orientations are suggestively more concerned with reimagining new forms of durationality.