Taryn Simon collaborated with Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation (ROSATOM) to prepare a work of art made from nuclear material. In the year 3015, approximately one thousand years after its creation, a black square made from vitrified nuclear waste will be permanently displayed at Garage in a custom designed void that has been integrated into the new museum building.
Bold and optimistic of the artist to assume humanity would thrive for that long.
Though I imagine that very thought is more likely the purpose of the art.
Like the 1160 year German art project.
Weird that they chose to make it out of concrete. I’m no expert, but won’t the first block start to deteriorate after about 100 years?
Depends on what the concrete is made of.
Not having rebar means it’s going to be significantly more stable over time since you no longer have to worry about de-alkelineization (spelling is hard), and rust causing expansive forces inside the concrete and cracking it.
The chemical composition of the concrete will probably be improved over time as budget allows, increasing its longevity quite significantly.
Ancient structures used iron pins and bars, but they were covered with lead to protect them from rusting, plus lead is also plenty soft enough to not damage concrete.
Yes we all know lead is toxic, so just don’t lick the lead covered pins/rebar during construction 👍
Mmmm, lead-covered-rebars
I’m pretty sure that’s the point of it, at least some of it.
The only way this will ever get finished is if they form a religion whose goal is to build and worship the pyramid. Otherwise they forget why they even started putting blocks down and then some developer will eventually buy up the plot to build an Aldi3000 on it
And they even designed a place for it in a museum building. Wildly optimistic.
Zero chance this is still around in a thousand years. Just too damn long. He’ll I’d be surprised if any of our current societies or cultures still exist then.
I believe that is the entire point of the piece.
It will be used to fuel the interdimensional portal gate by 2123
I’d assume it would depend on the concrete. Some additives could affect the durability wildly.
Also I’d think some maintenance is planned for it anyways
Will that maintenance be carried out when needed for over a thousand years?
See: China?
China changed dynasties every few hundred years. Saying that the China from 2000 years ago is the same as today is like saying ancient Greece or Rome is still around today. China is not even the same country or culture as 75 years ago.
I bet they have a few pieces of art from 1,000 years ago.
Ancient Greece still is around? Greek people exist, we practice the same religion we did over 1,700 years ago, we speak the same language, we preserve dances and culinary customs and more. Just because the clothing and architectural style changed doesn’t mean shit
Yeah, just forget about Byzantine Greece, Venice owning Greece, the Ottomans owning Greece, Nazis invading and conquering Greece, the Civil War, a dictatorship, and finally the current Greek government. Other than that, just one unbroken line of greekdom.
Feel free to correct me if I’ve misunderstood your point, but are you saying that “Greece” in a historical context is not a unitary entity? But how can that be so when the very thing that creates this “unbroken line of Greekdom” you refer to is the the entire concept of a “History of Greece” that reaches back thousands of years in the first place?
If there is no unitary Greek identity that reaches back from the present to the Greeks of the past, then a history of Greece that includes the Roman conquest, the Ottomans, Byzantium, would be absurd (and shame on the Wikizens for including it in one conceptual lump as well, I guess).
You could say the same of Britain after 1066, or France after Henry VI. Or of Egypt after the merging of the kingdoms, or after the Ptolomys, etc; and yet most Egyptians would push back at the suggestion that there is no direct line from the age of pharaohs to the present day.
Being a nation with the same name, occupying at least a portion of its original geography, populated by many of the decedents of the same people – well, that grants a country some pretty big ontological leeway. Who gets to decide whether the Greeks of today share the history and are of a piece with their ancient predecessors? Well the Greeks do, presumably. I mean, that’s just the way I see it, I might be off on a wild tangent for all I know.
A history of domination by foreigners doesn’t mean we’re not the same people. Assyrians, Jews, Kurds, Roma, and more people groups have stayed the same despite millenia of oppression
I mean i doubt that will be there in a 1000 years but cool. For those of you saying humans will be long gone. Why do you think that? Quite a simple minded way of thinking if you ask me. Humanity needs to spread out from earth and explore for new planets so we can thrive across the universe. Being stuck on this planet for eternity might actually make us go extinct though. (not caused by humans but other space things like asteroids for example) the end goal for humanity is to last till the end of time itself. If it means billions if not trillions of life’s have to die to get to that point then so be it. If it means having to wipe out an entire alien species to save ourselves then so be it. If it means we have to hibernate for millions of years on ships then so be it.
I personally hope humanity lasts until that last atom in the universe has been destroyed.
You make us sound like a disease.
In some ways, we are, aren’t we?
Yes.
Both are groups of organisms subject to the laws of evolution and ecology and trying to survive and propagate their species, yes. The comparison, while technically correct, is unhelpful and usually made in bad faith.
You could also say diseases work a lot like humans. We both do our best to spread and survive and adapt to our environments. That’s how nature works. That’s how a basic survival mechanism works.
From trees creating seeds that fly well on the wind and dropping them from great heights, to humans exploring and colonizing, to diseases spreading and growing in an attempt to survive as best as they can, we’re all the same in that basic way.
Nah just plain ol survival.
