Here Comes the Sun

We have built systems of extra­or­di­nary complexity to predict, control and optimize our world. Artificial intel­li­gence, we are told, will solve our greatest challenges. Yet the more intelligent our machines become, the more we seem to forget the oldest forms of intel­li­gence surrounding us: that of the sun broad­cast­ing its energy with perfect consistency for billions of years, that of marine microor­gan­isms perfecting their luminous archi­tec­tures. Intel­li­gence is not a human invention. 

It also exists in human communities when they choose cooperation over competition, when they dare to imagine other pos­si­bil­i­ties together. For imagination is that uniquely human faculty that allows us to understand through speculative leaps, through empathy and creativity.

The three works in this exhibition explore these entan­gle­ments. Through the visual languages of cinema – sto­ry­telling, editing, power of the moving image –, they activate our imagination and make visible the invisible intel­li­gences that sustain life on this planet. 

Alice Bucknell projects us into Staring at the Sun (2024 – 2025), a near future where geo­engi­neer­ing – tech­nolo­gies aimed at delib­er­ate­ly modifying the climate – has become our last gamble with planetary systems. The film maps the territory where tech­no­log­i­cal inter­ven­tion meets ecological con­se­quences, where human vanity confronts the complexity of climate systems. 

Solar Protocol (2021 – 2025) by the collective of the same name led by Tega Brain, Alex Nathanson and Benedetta Piantella demon­strates that a solar-powered internet is possible. This work reveals that technology is never merely technical: Solar Protocol functions only through a global network of volunteers. The system is delib­er­ate­ly fragile, dependent on human care, and acknowl­edges its dependence on both solar cycles and cooperation. 

In Solar Panels (Radiolaria series), 2022, by James Bridle, the silica skeletons of radi­o­lar­i­ans – these microor­gan­isms that have spent millions of years perfecting geometric forms that capture light – are super­im­posed onto solar panels. This visual encounter is a revelation: evolution is the most sophis­ti­cat­ed research programme on Earth. 

These works expand the territory of what we can imagine. They show us that innovation does not mean domination, that technology can integrate into ecological and social systems, that the intel­li­gence we need is already here – in sunlight, in microor­gan­isms, in communities working together. It is up to us to learn to listen, to participate, and to let ourselves be guided by the intel­li­gences that surround us!

The exhibition is organised by Cercle Cité, with support from Luxembourg City Film Festival.

With support from Ministère de la culture, le Ministère de l’Environnement, du Climat et de la Biodiversité.

Elektron is supported Ville d’Esch-sur-Alzette.