SOLU Dialogues: Koelleven
23rd November 2023
18:00 - 20:00
SOLU Space, Panimokatu 1 (3rd floor), Helsinki

Bartaku is presenting the Koelleven project, an evolving constellation featuring partners from the backgrounds of microbiology, physics, philosophy, art and culture as well as energy industry. The project is instigated by the unique microbiota within cooling towers of nuclear power stations: how to attune with these entities, listen and learn from them, be influenced, conspire and express the findings. The project aims to make tangible the tensions that surface by relating microbial econiches and industrial bodies that are on the verge of disappearing in the phasing out of nuclear power. To this end, Koelleven interweaves the realms of microbiology, physics art and philosophy into a risky tapestry of inquiry.

During the event, Bartaku will share the core ideas and motivations of this three-year project as well as some first intricacies regarding collaborations and constraints to spark the conversation. This gathering is hoped to spark inspiration, joyful confusion and to provide some fresh perspectives on the intersections of art, science and technology.

Bartaku (Bart H.M. Vandeput, PhD) is an artist situated in the fields of Bio- and Energy art. Bartaku's practice explores relations between light, electrical energy, humans, plants and microbes. It senses for – and plays with – tensions between disciplines, process and result, makers and audiences, living and non-living, human and other-than-human. Currently he is senior researcher and postdoc at the Department of Philosophy of Antwerp University. He is visiting researcher at the New Energy Technologies Group at Aalto University, the Centre for Synthetic Biology at Ghent University and X-LAB at Hasselt University.
 

SOLU Dialogues is an ongoing event series at SOLU Space where art, science and society meet. Through varying formats we host artists, scientists and other practitioners present and discuss their work. These events are a forum for exchange and dialogue between our members, collaborators, communities and publics.