Air Deluxe
Air Deluxe, 2017
Commissionnée par Casino Luxembourg - Forum d'art contemporain et l’Association Rue Philippe II en collaboration avec la Ville de Luxembourg.
Like most city centres and urban agglomerations, Luxembourg suffers from a polluted atmosphere: for a decade nitrogen dioxide levels have exceeded EU rules and particulate matter is on the rise. In 2014 Luxembourg came last on the European City Ranking project which evaluates measures taken by 23 European municipalities to reduce air pollution.
Air Deluxe is an attempt to manage the polluted air of Luxembourg by installing a custom built air conditioning system along rue Philippe II. Of course, this is a purely symbolic solution. Installing air-conditioning in a street or an entire city may sound funny, naive or even derisive, however such systems have become a reality in large scale industrial architecture and spawned a field called climate engineering. In an dystopian scenario, where nothing is done to prevent air pollution, then mitigating the worst effects becomes imaginable: it is possible to filter pollution out of localised outdoor areas. If streets can be washed, cleaned and polished then likewise the air in a street can be exchanged.