Cool or hot Greenland? Exhibiting and enacting sustainable Arctic futures

Abstract In a current stage of ‘Arctic fever’, former representations of Greenland as ‘cool’ are increasingly joined by ‘hot’ scenarios based on an assumption of the nation as a ‘climate winner’. Using examples from the exhibition ‘Possible Greenland’ at the Venice Architectural Biennale of 2012, this paper shows how a Greenland of the future is portrayed and branded as a sustainable nation and destination through future scenarios. The performative approach to the exhibition and its scenarios displays how issues related to all three sides of sustainability – people, planet and profit – are enrolled in an attempt to brand Greenland, but also to motivate and carry out decisions. Two scenarios from the exhibition are used to show how diverging strategies are deployed in order to envision Greenland as sustainable. Where one seeks to embrace disagreement and complexity in its inclusive approach, the other strives to cut across locally grounded controversies. The two strategies are discussed and their potential as ‘sustainability brokers’ are critically evaluated. The strategic application of the sustainability concept to the exhibition displays the multiple ways by which the concept of sustainability is deployed to exhibit and enact a sustainable future Greenland and shows the difficulty of uniting the various visions propagated through the exhibition. However, it also points to the performative and interventionist potential of scenario building for a sustainable future, which is ultimately discussed.

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