At Geneva's Mapping Festival, Disnovation Explores Human Dependence on Photosynthesis

At the Mapping Festival in Geneva, the art collective Disnovation is presenting a thought-provoking installation that delves into the fundamental, yet often overlooked, reliance of human activities on photosynthesis. The exhibit, housed at the Kugler foundry until May 17, features a sophisticated photobioreactor designed to cultivate microalgae.

This device, resembling something out of science fiction, uses a glass structure to capture sunlight, enabling the microalgae within to perform photosynthesis. This natural process converts light energy into edible biomass. The installation then demonstrates how this biomass can be harvested and measured, offering a tangible representation of a core biological process that underpins much of our existence.

Disnovation's work, as explained by co-founders Maria Roszkowska and Nicolas Maigret, seeks to draw attention to the critical relationship between "solar income" – the energy derived from photosynthesis – and our current economic paradigms. They emphasize the inherent conflict between this finite natural resource and a global economic system predicated on perpetual growth. This installation serves as a powerful visual metaphor, prompting viewers to consider the sustainability of our current trajectory and the deep-seated dependence on natural processes that we often take for granted.

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Photosynthesis is at the origin of the biomass that supports the food chain and a large part of human activities. We want to highlight the tensions between this limited solar income and our economic model based on infinite growth.