The Great Endeavor
Video-Installation / Liam Young / Great Britain / 2023
To reach current climate targets, slashing future emissions alone cannot be relied upon. The capacity to remove existing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it underground at gigatonne scales must be developed. The ‘great endeavor’ to capture all this carbon will involve the construction of the largest engineering project in human history, and the development of a new infrastructure equivalent in size to that of the entire global fossil fuel industry.
The Great Endeavor approaches this challenge with radical optimism, collaborating with a network of scientists and technologists to create a short film for Venice that captures the design, construction, and drama of what it might look like to build this infrastructural imaginary. Featuring workwear created in collaboration with costume designer Ane Crabtree and set to the score of a new song composed by vocalist Lyra Pramuk, the film captures millions of people on the construction site, in coordinated action to decolonise the atmosphere in our last great act of planetary transformation.