Vacuuming the City

What are the respective roles of art, science and activism in the project of cleaning our airs? Do we have any power to do this work alone? What role will technological innovation play the future of our atmospheres?

In 2022, Wang Renzheng spent 100 days walking around Beijing, China at night. With a domestic cleaner in hand, he vaccuumed up air from the polluted city. The particles collected were compacted, and made into just one brick.

This artistic work (represented here in a digital short) points towards the laborious, time-consuming task of transforming our polluted cities. It also examines the roles of individual activists, who, like the artist, are compelled to take creative and abstract forms of action. Because the work yeilds little physical result (only one brick is produced), it also hints at the futility of cleaning rituals in contexts of systemic pollution.