A/C City
The City as a Climate Machine

Wolfgang Lehrner

As global temperatures rise, cities are experiencing intensified heat crises — paradoxically, often exacerbated by the very systems designed to cool them. Modern architecture, dominated by glass façades and sealed windows, owes its existence to the widespread use of air conditioning. However, this technological marvel, once a symbol of progress, now threatens the essence of urban life. As people retreat indoors, the vibrant pulse of the city — its unexpected street encounters and communal spaces — begins to fade.

A/C City investigates the dialectic relationship between air conditioning and urban environments: how has the demand for climate control reshaped our cities and, in turn, how do these altered cities contribute to the changing climate?

This dynamic is most evident in economically vulnerable areas, where the proliferation of individual air conditioning units transforms building façades into mechanical ecosystems.

Stone Whispers Smoke Signals

Mladen Miljanović

Statistics is an accurate collection of inaccurate data, but here a mostly bureaucratic aesthetic serves as a great monument of warning. Each of the 120 stone cube monuments of varying size is carefully chosen and measured to represent the pollution levels of 120 different cities around the world. The diversity in the size of the cubes becomes a visual narrative, shedding light on the harsh pollution level disparity that cities both large and small endure. At the heart of this “live” installation is a symbol of the climate crisis. Smoke creates clouds and fog in the installation, forming the foundation of the cityscape. However, the smoke is not harmful to present visitors, instead acting as an air purifier with an antibacterial formula.

Additional information: Exhibition brochure The Last Great Smoke, Sarajevo 2024 (PDF)

Video documentation: The Last Great Smoke, Sarajevo 2024 (Vimeo)

→ Wolfgang Lehrner

→ Mladen Miljanović