Michael Pinsky’s  created an art installation in which the visitor can directly feel, taste and smell the polluted environment that is everyday life for a large part of the world’s population.

Starting from Tautra a coastal location near Trondheim in Norway where the air is clean, the visitor passes through five interconnecting domes which contain typical smells from world metropolises: London, Sao Paulo, Beijing, New Delhi. As the visitor moves from pod to pod the air gets increasingly more polluted.

With this artwork the artist wants to raise awareness about air pollution.

 

According to the World Health Organization, every year around 7 million premature deaths are caused by air pollution, with 9 out of 10 people breathing toxic air. Air pollution is also known to contribute to climate change and has a direct impact on our health. In cities like London, one in five children suffers from asthma, while in developing countries like India more than half of the children have atrophied lungs and will never fully recover.

 

Vocabulary

polluted – verunreinigt

coastal – küstennah

interconnecting – miteinander verbindend

dome – Kuppel

pod – Gehäuse

increasingly – zunehmend

raise awareness – Bewusstsein fördern

according – gemäß

premature deaths – vorzeitiger Tod

impact – Auswirkung

atrophied lungs – verkümmerte Lunge

recover – erholen