From 7 to 11 September, the Austrian city of Linz hosts the Ars Electronica Festival where participants from the fields of art, science and technology from around the world come together to address one of the great challenges facing our society: the climate emergency. Within the framework of this event, the Institut Ramon Llull, in collaboration with the NewArtFoundation and the new Art, Science and Technology Hub, HacTe, present a sample of the current state of digital creativity in Catalonia.
The six works of art that are part of this exhibition are mainly the result of the Ars Electronica Garden Barcelona promoted during 2020 and 2021 by HacTe, the Institut Ramon Llull, the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), Hangar, Centre for Artistic Production and Research, and the . BEEP Collection. In addition, some of these pieces also come from scholarship programs such as the ISEA2022 Barcelona.
HacTe will participate in this edition through different proposals by four of the entities that make up the association: the NewArt Foundation, the UOC, Hangar and the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).
Through the Gardens held in 2020 and 2021, the Catalan capital has become one of the main relocated venues of the Ars Electronica Festival, the most important event in the world dedicated to electronic creation and the synergies between art, technology, science and society. After two years of pandemic, this year the Austrian festival is once again committed to face-to-face, becoming an opportunity for internationalization for Catalan digital art.
Under the title ‘Collaborative ecosystems for a sustainable world’, the exhibition proposes that only collaborative practices, based on the transversal exchange of knowledge and efforts, can allow us to generate proposals that lead to a project for a sustainable world. And precisely, collaborative practices are a fundamental characteristic of Catalan innovation.
The six projects that will be exhibited are:
- Tasmanian Tiger, Antoni Muntadas. New production, produced by NewArtFoundation, Hac Te, and with the collaboration of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia.
- Do bodies dream of electromagnetic organs, Esther Rodriguez-Barbero. Ars Electronica Garden 2021. Grant from the UOC, Institut Ramon Llull, NewArtFoundation, La Caldera and Hangar, Centre for Artistic Production and Research.
- Forms, Santi Vilanova. Ars Electronica Garden 2020. Scholarship from the Institut Ramon Llull, NewArtFoundation and Hangar.
- Chemical Ecosystem, Yolanda Uriz Elizalde. Presented at the ISEA2022 Barcelona. Scholarship from ISEA2022Barcelona, UOC, NewArtFoundation, Hac Te and the Ernesto Ventós Foundation.
- Species I, II and III, Mónica Rikić. Presented at the ISEA2022 Barcelona, Scholarship of the ISEA2022 Barcelona, UOC, NewArtFoundation, Hac Te and DKV.
- Tools for a Warming Planet, Sara Dean, Beth Ferguson and Marina Monsonís. Presented at the ISEA2022 Barcelona.
Collaborative practices for a sustainable world
Along with this exhibition, the main stage of Ars Electronica, the Festival University Stage, will host a conference on collaborative practices and how, based on them and sharing knowledge, proposals for a sustainable world can be generated. The talk, which will be held on Thursday 8 September, will be moderated by Pau Alsina, co-director of HacTe and professor and researcher at the UOC’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities. The event will include the artist and UOC professor Mónica Rikić (Catalonia), winner of the 2021 National Culture Award, the architect and designer Sara Dean (California), the designer and educator specialising in ecology Beth Ferguson (California) and the artist and director of the MACBA kitchen laboratory Marina Monsonís (Catalonia).
Completing this programme, there will also be a guided tour of the projects of the exhibition Collaborative Ecosystems for a Sustainable World and a workshop on Tools for a Warming Planet.