Leevi Toija and Cristian Zabalaga examine the impacts of green mobility solutions on Finland's groundwater through a three-week research trip visiting mines, battery factories, and polluted lakes. Their collaborative investigation reveals contradictions between sustainability and environmental damage, where battery mining for electric cars threatens Finland's most valuable natural resource—clean groundwater. The research culminates in a duo-exhibition featuring underwater video work and sculptural installations that explore the invisible boundaries between polluted and clean water, creating an ambivalent experience that resembles both underwater immersion and neo-liberal tech-company aesthetics.
With this research we wanted to delve deep into the impacts of green(er) (i.e. electric car manufacturing) ways of travel on the quality of the necessary-for-life groundwater. Finland's most dominant (and major) valuable natural resource is (clean) groundwater. Yet it is also the only country in Europe in possession of all the needed minerals to produce (car) batteries. However, the needed amount to mine these minerals to match EU's objective on electric cars -- requires a 30 time increase in production. Even now, without the 30 time increase, a company called Terrafame spilled thousands of liters of toxic water into nature in the biggest cobalt mine in Finland, causing a major natural catastrophe within the local lakes and forests—simultaneously polluting the area's groundwater. Even though the thematic framework of mobility infrastructure is something familiar -- already researched -- to us, the impact it has on groundwaters is completely unknown to us. Through upcoming discussions with different specialists from the field of environmental science -- we hope to discover new linkages between our already existing knowledge of mobility and sustainable greener future. So -- in short -- we believe that through listening, and discussing with people we can learn, and discover most efficiently.
Even though the thematic framework of mobility infrastructure is something familiar to us —already researched—the impact it has on groundwaters is completely unknown to us. Through discussions with different specialists from the field of environmental science, as well as locals affected by polluted water—we hope to discover new linkages between our already existing knowledge of mobility and sustainable future. So—in short—we believe that through listening and discussing with people we can learn, and discover most efficiently. However we do not have a specific research goal in mind. We do not plan to answer precisely set questions, but rather speculate a constellation of latent potentials the questions asked might possess. Not only do we want to find the most sustainable way to travel, but also speculate and communicate to a broader audience, what are the debated parameters of sustainability in mobility. We wish to deconstruct the dominance of ignorance in the field of moving through the project.