SOLAR FUTURES invites three individual artists to create new works exploring Solarpunk, a movement envisioning optimistic, ecologically harmonious futures where humans, technology, and nature coexist sustainably.
The selected projects explore how bodies, technologies and energy systems shape shared futures, addressing questions of ecological transition, digital infrastructures and collective organisation from complementary perspectives.
Physical Installation — Renewable Energy and Circular Resources
Selected artist: Jin Lee
Project: Syn-thesis: Autonomy Flag
Jin Lee’s project explores the absolute dependence of our lives on energy. Not only does energy enable the development, growth, and flourishing of our societies, but it is also the primary commodity that —“allows minorities to access social intelligence and make their voices heard,”— thus framing access to energy as a matter of social justice rather than merely a privileged resource for certain social groups.
From this perspective, the current development of large-scale, concentrated energy power grids, as well as the accessibility of certain high-performance energy production processes, should be considered a common good rather than something controlled by a small group of companies.
In this project, the artist investigates the frictions at the micro-levels of energy generation models to collectively create an “anti-monument” of today’s system. Alongside the other selected proposals, we believe that Jin Lee’s work will foster meaningful exchanges that can be shared with all our communities.
Screen-Based Experience — Permacomputing and Digital Sobriety
Selected artist: David Lazar
Project: inference_commons
David Lazar’s proposal challenges the idea of permacomputing by artistically exploring a future in which artificial intelligence brings us together rather than alienating and radicalising us. In his project, screens, servers, AI models, and audiences work together to imagine a different paradigm for technology: from accessibility design to algorithmic transparency, from collective decision-making strategies to decentralised processing power, and from sustainable technical solutions to privacy and digital sovereignty.
Through his proposal, everyone is invited to question their own day-to-day relationship with the ongoing technological waves that our societies seem to accept uncritically.
The Solar Futures partners are very happy to host this residency, which presents such an interesting challenge.
Live Performance — New Imaginaries for Political and Societal Organisation
Selected artist: Carolin Schnurrer
Project: Orbiting Other Rhythms
In the project “Orbiting Other Rhythms,” by recalling the scold’s bridle —“a metal muzzle used to punish women accused of speaking too loudly or challenging social order”— the artist brings into the present discussion a series of stories about conflicts between different mindsets, strong desires for control and the imposition of power, arising from opposing ways of looking at the same world.
The performance connects to an ongoing research process that questions how deeply the human body should relate to the Earth—relationships that our societies have largely forgotten, yet which we increasingly recognize as necessary to remember and protect.
The proposed performance presents multiple layers of technical complexity, supported by experience and artistry. We are very happy to cross paths with Carolin Schnurrer and would love to support her and share these ideas within our communities in this first edition of the Solar Futures project.
¿WHAT IS SOLAR FUTURES?
SOLAR FUTURES is a Creative Europe-supported collaboration bringing together four leading cultural organizations working at the intersection of art, science, and technology: OHME (Belgium) together with Electroni[k] (France), iii (The Netherlands), and LEV Festival (Spain), in partnership with two associated universities, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), to support transdisciplinary artistic practices that imagine alternative, desirable futures.
WHY SOLARPUNK?
Solarpunk envisions desirable futures where technology, ecology, and community co-exist harmoniously. Positioned against techno-pessimism and climate anxiety, it promotes open-source tools, circular systems, low-impact technologies and decentralised cooperation. While Solarpunk has emerged in design and literature, it remains underexplored in institutional artistic contexts. SOLAR FUTURES brings this vision to life through concrete artistic production and public engagement.
