From Solar to Nocturnal

Enter the Hyper-Scientific x mudac Solar Biennale
Opening
Wednesday 19 March, 6 pm  
EPFL Pavilions – Pavillon A 
Joint opening with Archizoom

©Alice Bucknell, Staring at the Sun, 2025

Enter the Hyper-Scientific x mudac 

Organized in conjunction with the second Solar Biennale presented by mudac and titled Soleil·s, the exhibition From Solar to Nocturnal premieres two new productions: Staring at the Sun by Alice Bucknell and Interspecies Interfaces by Matthew C. Wilson & Emilia Tapprest, realized in dialogue with the scientific community of EPFL.

From the spring equinox to the autumn equinox of 2025, mudac will host the second Solar Biennale with the exhibition Soleil·s in the Plateforme 10 arts district and on the EPFL campus. Launched in 2022 in the Neth­er­lands by design­ers Pauline van Dongen and Marjan van Aubel, the Solar Bien­nale provides a plat­form for reflec­tions on the chal­lenges of solar energy. For this second edition, mudac will broaden the theme by bring­ing together design­ers, curat­ors, activ­ists, and research­ers to explore expan­ded perspect­ives on how to approach ecolo­gical trans­ition.

©Design Adeline Mollard

Alice Bucknell’s Staring at the Sun is a sci-fi documentary that probes the dark side of solar geoengineering, that is, the deliberate, large-scale modification of Earth’s climate systems through manipulation of solar influence. Set globally—from the Louisiana Bayou to the Arctic Circle, from Wyoming to Gstaad, and from the Great Barrier Reef to Indonesia’s palm oil plantations—and narrated by fictional protagonists based on real interviews, it explores geoengineering proposals under research in the US and Europe alongside advancements in climate modeling and digital twin technology.

Matthew C. Wilson and Emilia Tapprest’ s two-chapter project Interspecies Interfaces focuses on newly evolving contact zones between bats, humans, and technology. It introduces the concept of “other suns” to challenge the solar-centric hierarchy of perception. Just as the transition to solar and other energy sources requires new ways of thinking and designing, the reimagination of human cultural and technological perception of the more-than-human world also demands a shift. The nocturnal world of bats presents an alternative strategy for perceiving and interfacing with the environment: they use echolocation, in which sound, rather than light, serves as the primary signal for orientation. 

Spanning world-building technologies, AI, and interspecies sensory translation, the exhibition traces a narrative itinerary from solar to nocturnal while shifting from real-world scenarios to the exploration of alternative visions for how we act, perceive, and interact with our surroundings.


From Solar to Nocturnal
Staring at the Sun et Interspecies Interfaces (part I)

Opening : Wednesday 19 March 2025
18.00 pm
EPFL Pavilions – Pavillon A
Joint opening with Archizoom

Dates of the exhibition: 20.03 – 27.04.2025  
Tuesday – Sunday, 11h-18h  

 


Program of the opening on March 19, 2025

18.00 pmSG BuildingsOpening speech
• Cyril Veillon, Curator of the  Sun shines on Architecture  exhibition
• Prof. Marilyne Andersen, Director of the LIPID, ENAC EPFL laboratory 
• Dr. Giulia Bini, Curator and Head of program  Enter the Hyper-Scientific
• Paolo Ricci, Director of Swiss Plasma Center EPFL

18:30EPFL PavilionsPavillon AOpening of the exhibition: From Solar to Nocturnal
Opening of the From Solar to Nocturnal exhibitions at Pavillon A. Opening remarks by Giulia Bini (Curator and Head of program of Enter the Hyper-Scientific), Alice Bucknell (Artist and Writer), Matthew C. Wilson (Artist).

19:00 pm – aperitif

 


Halos
Interspecies Interfaces (part II) and Atithi

Opening : Thursday 05 June 2025
EPFL Pavilions – Pavillon A – 18.00 pm

Dates of the exhibition:  06.06 – 06.07.2025
Tuesday – Sunday, 11h-18h  


© Alice Bucknell, Staring at the Sun, 2024
Commissioned and coproduced by the EPFL CDH AiR Program 2024: Enter the Hyper-Scientific, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne EPFL and mudac, Musée cantonal du design et d’art appliqué contemporain, Lausanne with additional support from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts

© Matthew Wilson & Emilia Tapprest, Interspecies Interfaces, 2025
Commissioned and produced by the EPFL CDH AiR Program 2024: Enter the Hyper-Scientific, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne EPFL with additional support from the Mondriaan Fund