One of the advantages of having already published in a field is that you may receive interesting offers. For example, creating a science fiction short story for a book associated with a contemporary art exhibition.
The MUDAC (Musée cantonal de design et d’arts appliqués contemporains) is one of Lausanne’s cultural institutions. It used to be housed in a big house next to the cathedral, but for the past few years it has settled in a rather attractive concrete cube on the concrete-concrete site of Platforme 10, just next to themain station.
This year the museum is hosting the Solar Biennial, an exhibition organised as part of the Solar Movement, an initiative to promote the artistic and design aspects of solar-related technologies. As the MUDAC has a small publishing department, the curators proposed to accompany the exhibition with the publication of a collection of science fiction short stories by international authors on the theme of solar energy and the sun. As this collection was coordinated by the publisher La Volte, my co-author and I were asked to submit a text.
The request was for a text about a positive future, linked to the theme of the sun. SF writers are often asked to write about happy futures in these complicated times, because the future we’re facing isn’t very bright. It’s not an easy exercise: it’s easier to talk about our fears and what scares us.
The result of our work is a text entitled ‘Le champ de la Mi-été’, which is now in a book alongside prestigious neighbours such as Nnedi Okorafor, luvan, Sabrina Calvo, Michael Roch… Our participation in this collection also enabled us to be invited to the opening of the exhibition.
An exhibition opening in the Museum of Contemporary Art of the fourth largest city in Switzerland (a small city by European standards) is not exactly my usual milieu. So who comes? Basically people from the cultural bourgeoisie. Artists of all kinds, university professors, quite a few young, fluid people and some well-dressed older ones. I’d put on my best hat.
The opening began with a talk by the Dutch women behind the Solar Biennale, which had already taken place in Rotterdam. The speech was in international English, and as I was quite far behind, I didn’t understand a word of it.
Then Scott Longfellow (curator of the exhibition with Rafaël Santianez) gave four talks in French by people involved in the exhibition.
First of all, Professor Christophe Ballif from EPFL, a specialist in solar panels at the Neuchâtel Institute of Microtechnology. He’s a huge fan of solar panel technology. He says that we’ll be able to produce just about all the energy humanity needs with this technology, that China is way ahead in this field, and that we’ll find the materials we need to do it. (I’m summarising with a hammer)
Then there’s the great solar lab duo https://mudac.ch/designers/solar-lab/ / Studio Lemercier, whose exhibition showcases their DIY solar projects and their desire to create imaginary worlds that are at once technical, poetic and beautiful, spurred on by the opening of the world’s largest open-cast brown coal mine, in Germany, not far from where they live.
Then there was Professor Marilyne Andersen from the EPFL again (this institution is everywhere in Switzerland) https://people.epfl.ch/marilyne.andersen?lang=en who talked about those receptors at the back of the eye that aren’t used to see, but just to adjust our circadian rhythms, and about the fact that, indoors in the city, we had 100 times less light than outdoors (even if the brain is good at making us believe the opposite). All this is to introduce the cool installation in the exhibition: the Cantonal Office of Daylight, a fictional administration that ensures that everyone has access to the daylight they need.
And finally, the dancer Rocio Berenguer https://rocioberenguer.com/info.php who talked about interspecies dance (with weeds) and issued a joyous bad weeds manifesto (you can see her/their work on video in the exhibition).
And finally, the exhibition opens.
It’s very tech/design oriented, with a shift towards the imaginary and SF.
Some of the highlights:
- a time capsule that allows plants to travel into the future (it artificially creates the conditions for plants to grow where the glaciers have retreated – there are plants inside);
- a sun-yurt lounge where you can read the book of SF short stories published to coincide with the exhibition
- a screening of a film about giant-SF-machines, in which an artist imagines the huge machines that will be used to decarbonise the atmosphere;
- the interior of a house where a designer has removed everything that wasn’t absolutely necessary (I forgot to take the photo), resulting in an über-Japanese interior;
- full of solar crafts, HEAD creations, magazine covers on the theme of the sun, and an open skylight in the ceiling so that, yeah, the sun can come into this room.
Afterwards, there was a lot of official blah-blah, followed by plenty of red and white wine and boxer beer, and apple juice for those of you in a sober period. And then I left, because it had been a long day.
End of transmissions, come and visit the exhibition if you get the chance, it’s well worth it!
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