Photo North – Northern Photographic Centre will participate in the international Ars Electronica Festival from 6 to 10 September 2023 with the More-than-Planet project.
First held in 1979 as an offshoot of the early days of the digital revolution, the Ars Electronica festival is one of the world’s key media art festivals. Spread over the Linz harbour area, the annually changing themes of the festival take a broad look at the dialogue between art, technology, the society and possible futures.
The More-than-Planet project of Photo North – Northern Photographic Centre is part of the official programme of the festival and will be presented in the More-than-Planet Living Lab section. The exhibition presents the work of the residencies at the Oulanka Research Station and Pyhäsalmi Mine in the summer and autumn of 2023. The full festival programme can be found here.
In addition, Photo North’s More-than-Planet project director Antti Tenetz and BIOS research team member Tero Toivanen will give a Systemic Change in the Times of Polycrisis workshop as part of the festival programme. They invite festival visitors to join the discussion about systemic change and sustainable solutions to the multiple ecological crisis on Thursday 7 September at 2 pm in the More-than-Planet Living Lab space at Ars Electronica. Perspectives on the polycrisis will be explored through the work of artists, researchers and activists, and the workshop will be linked to the activities of Photo North’s More-than-Planet project at Europe’s deepest metal mine in Pyhäsalmi, Finland, and Oulanka research station in the middle of deep northern boreal forest.
The More-than-Planet section of the festival will culminate in the (Un)Earthing the Truth: Ownership and Narratives about the Planet: A More-than-Planet Conference symposium on Friday 8 September 2023. The symposium will bring together artists, researchers and economists to challenge the dominant authorities in our environment and to reimagine the balance between market ideologies and our environments. The final interactive workshop session aims to create sustainable and flexible narratives and structures that contribute to a shared future together with our environment.
The international More-than-Planet research project develops environmental literacy through space exploration, artistic work and collaboration between 2022 and 2025. The project has been awarded Creative Europe funding under the programme ID No. 101056238 and national match funding from the City of Oulu and the Finnish National Board of Education.
For more information, please contact:
Antti Tenetz
More-than-Planet Project Manager
antti@photonorth.fi, +358 40 163 3964