The menhir: aesthetic politics of radioactive waste disposal in northern Switzerland

Abstract. Geological disposal projects rest on the assumption that radioactive waste can be safely managed through its spatio-temporal separation from human life at the surface. This paper examines how a local farmer in the Zürcher Weinland – one of the regions considered for nuclear waste disposal – disrupted this assumption by rendering the radioactive hazard perceptible through a series of landscape interventions. Drawing on interviews, participatory observations, and document analysis, we show how these interventions – banners, barrels, and, most notably, a 30 t protest boulder, the menhir – provoked controversy over humanity's relationship with radioactive waste and its implications for the continuation of rural life. In dialogue with Jacques Rancière's work on aesthetics and politics, we argue that these interventions can unsettle the region's consensual political landscape and reveal how human and non-human actors can emerge as political subjects.