Latent Accumulations. Coastal Phase Change, Paraffin Pollution and Maintenance

As a waxy substance derived from the industrial process of refining crude oil, paraffin is an energy material that is intended to be inert, but ›upsets‹ in its infinite plasticity and movement (1). Léa Perraudin and Iva Rešetar examine its latent activity in the context of spillage and debris accumulation on the Baltic coastline. Paraffin pollution is a recurring concern in coastal environments, yet one that is inherently difficult to classify. Depending on its physical state, paraffin discharged into marine ecosystems is considered litter if in solid form, or a chemical pollutant if fluid – paradoxically assigning different political frameworks and modes of action to its monitoring and handling. As a result of marine cargo traffic and the oil extraction industry, paraffin accumulations can be found throughout the Baltic Sea, for example in the coastal areas of the Curonian Spit nature reserve in Lithuania.

In their ongoing fieldwork in Nida, Lithuania, Rešetar and Perraudin are concerned with the scales and phases of paraffin (re-)distribution in this seemingly pristine natural environment. Latent Accumulations focuses on the ecopolitics of paraffin pollution, engaging the material as unsettled in its movement and energy exchange. They argue that it is precisely the process of phase transition that gives rise to this uncertain ontological status – between solid and liquid, slow and sudden, and between events of pollution, their materialization and maintenance. At the same time, they pursue tools and investigative methods to trace, mediate and showcase such processes, in ways that tell us more about the present and future politics of material mixtures at thresholds of sea and land, through practices of witnessing, preserving, collecting and maintenance.

In cooperation with NAC – Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania