From Bedrock to Deadrock: The Heritages and Eco-Aesthetics of Finnish Uranium

Talk with Marko M. Marila, Linköping University, and discussant Casper Sylvest.

When the price of uranium skyrocketed in the early 2000s, international mining companies rushed to search for the commodity globally. In Finland, the prospectors were, however, met with fervent anti-uranium mining protests. Among the activists was Finnish artist Pessi Manner whose rock carvings remain the social movements’ most enduring legacies and continue to communicate contemporary nuclear imaginaries far into the future.

With special reference to Manner’s art, this talk reflects on the aesthetic strategies of environmentalist anti-uranium activism, and especially the attempts to elicit in feeling bodies a sense of connection to a landscape in need of protection. 

With discussant: Casper Sylvest. Casper Sylvest is Head of the Saxo Institute and professor of history. His research interests include visions of international and global politics during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the impact of technology, in particular nuclear technologies, on politics and culture during the Cold War. Recent projects have focused on Danish civil defence during the Cold War and the role of nuclear technologies in environmental history.