Marte Eknæs

Infra literally means under or below. Infrastructure is that which supports, enables, and makes mobile. In Lauren Berlant’s words: the lifeworld of structure. In this definition, infra is seen as the composite of the immediate experiences, activities, and interactions that shape the world of an individual life. Infrastructures are active forms. They are often extractive, harming the possibility of certain life in providing for others. But they can also be circular, twisted, surreal, ambivalent, and open-ended. Importantly, they can carry the potential for hacking or repurposing.

The exhibition Infra gathers instances of infra as potential for both seeing and taking action. Circular water illustrates plumbing as a diagram of interconnections and dependencies, pumping water from one tank to another. This work co-exists with sculptures that act as agents of maintenance, pressure and information. The series Temperature, made in collaboration with Michael Amstad and Nicolau Vergueiro, features videos and prints of surfaces captured in the infrared spectrum. This technology organizes the landscape by measuring temperature, revealing aspects that remain invisible to the human eye. Together, these agents, diagrams and imagery propose an incomplete, but layered picture of that which enables, supports and moves as potentiality.

—Marte Eknæs