Danish artist collective Superflex has collaborated with architecture practice KWY.studio to create Super Kello, a monumental marble sculpture at Kiviniemi fishing harbour in Oulu, Finland. Installed as part of the Climate Clock public art trail for Oulu 2026 European Capital of Culture, the work explores climate change, rising sea levels and interspecies design through architecture intended for both people and marine life.
Positioned on the shores of Bothnian Bay at the northern edge of the Baltic Sea, the sculpture forms the latest chapter in Superflex and KWY.studio’s ongoing series of “fish cubes.” While visitors can experience the artwork today as public seating and a contemplative landmark, the designers envision it eventually serving as habitat for fish if rising sea levels reshape the coastline.
Super Kello Reimagines Public Art Through Interspecies Design
Super Kello continues Superflex’s long-running exploration of architecture that considers non-human users. Using parametric design and precision wire-cutting techniques, the team transformed a single block of waste Rosa Aurora marble into a sculptural form with an expanded surface area that encourages future marine biodiversity.
Superflex has developed similar “fish cubes” in recent years, including one installed beneath Copenhagen Harbour and another that functions as public street furniture in Portugal.
“Surface area is what lacks in the seas in this part of the world, and even more so in a place like Denmark,” said Superflex co-founder Rasmus Rosengren Nielsen. “We [the Danish] built a country with stones we took from the sea, and stone reefs were the homes of fish, so it’s like we took their cities to build our cities.”
The project reflects the collective’s wider interest in “interspecies design,” an approach that expands architecture beyond human-centred thinking. Consequently, behavioural ecologist Alex Jordan collaborated with the artists to help interpret marine habitats and fish behaviour during the design process.
“We have this principle that we don’t just make things for people, but we make things with people, but if you’re making things in places that might disappear, you’re not making it with people any more, you’re making it with, potentially, fish,” said Nielsen.
“So we like to think that fish are our new collaborators and we have to take into account their aesthetic preferences,” he continued.
The team selected Portuguese Rosa Aurora marble because its pink tones resemble coral polyps that could eventually migrate north as ocean temperatures continue to rise.
“This might be a beginning of a Kiviniemi coral reef in the deep future,” said Nielsen.
Meanwhile, visitors today encounter a contemplative sculpture whose bell-like form references both the Finnish word kello and nearby local landmarks. To reinforce ideas of deep time, the installation also features a recording of Homer’s Odyssey, performed at the extraordinary pace of one word per hour over ten years.
Climate Clock Uses Contemporary Art to Explore Environmental Change
Super Kello forms one of seven permanent commissions created for the Climate Clock public art trail, curated by Alice Sharp of Invisible Dust. The programme pairs international contemporary artists with scientists to create site-specific artworks responding to environmental change across Oulu’s sub-Arctic landscape.
“I was so impressed by this beautiful space, where you have this transformation from the winter to the summer,” said curator Alice Sharp. “But at the same time you have climate change warming [the Arctic] at four times the rate of the rest of the world. So things that are changing here are changing faster.”
“What my concept for the whole of Climate Clock has been is to look at reconnecting to nature’s time. Each of these artworks seeks to enable you to be in a moment where you have a pause, and you think about yourself and nature.”
The trail also includes a monumental stone installation by Rana Begum, ceramic landscape interventions by Ranti Bam, forest portals by Antti Laitinen, a roadside project by Gabriel Kuri, a snow-inspired installation by Takahiro Iwasaki, and the participatory work The Most Valuable Clock in the World by Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen.
Together, the projects transform Oulu’s urban spaces, forests and coastline into an open-air exhibition where contemporary art, scientific research and environmental awareness intersect. As one of the flagship cultural initiatives of Oulu 2026, Climate Clock positions public art as a catalyst for reflecting on ecological futures while encouraging audiences to reconsider humanity’s relationship with the natural world.