Diesel Runaway
Art Installation: Salt, water, plants, soil, steel, plastic, tape, plexiglass.
Schwabach/Germany, 2026
Diesel Runaway takes its title from a rare mechanical phenomenon. Under certain conditions, a diesel engine begins to feed on a fuel source it can no longer control. The engine continues to accelerate until it destroys itself.
The exhibition brings together two installations about extractivist infrastructures. Built to organize and control the living world, these systems often produce effects that exceed the frameworks designed to contain them.
Las Salinas explores the transformation of matter through salt crystallization. Inspired by traditional salt marshes, the work reveals how the material gradually escapes the structure intended to contain it, following its own trajectory.
Babooshka addresses the global circulation of exotic plants through a series of autonomous terrariums. Sustained by fragile artificial microclimates, they evoke the displacement of living beings across territories while questioning the infrastructures that both protect and control them.
Once set in motion, infrastructures generate transformations that cannot be fully predicted or mastered. Like a diesel runaway engine, they can develop their own momentum, producing consequences that escape the intentions of those who built them—and, in some cases, lead to their own collapse.
The exhibition brings together two installations about extractivist infrastructures. Built to organize and control the living world, these systems often produce effects that exceed the frameworks designed to contain them.
Las Salinas explores the transformation of matter through salt crystallization. Inspired by traditional salt marshes, the work reveals how the material gradually escapes the structure intended to contain it, following its own trajectory.
Babooshka addresses the global circulation of exotic plants through a series of autonomous terrariums. Sustained by fragile artificial microclimates, they evoke the displacement of living beings across territories while questioning the infrastructures that both protect and control them.
Once set in motion, infrastructures generate transformations that cannot be fully predicted or mastered. Like a diesel runaway engine, they can develop their own momentum, producing consequences that escape the intentions of those who built them—and, in some cases, lead to their own collapse.