Our PhD researcher Davina Kaur Patel will speak at the seminar and artist in residence Cecilia Jonsson shows her work in progress The Toxins Colour System in the exhibition. For those of you in Bergen, this is not to be missed!
In 2025, Piksel Festival gathers artists, researchers, and critical thinkers in Bergen for a SPECIAL PROGRAM dedicated to soils - an element often overlooked, yet fundamental to all terrestrial life.
Under the title Perma/Soils – Interdisciplinary Strategies for Soil Recuperation, the event explores ecological challenges, unsustainable sociopolitical structures, technological means of repair, and the fragile conditions for soil life in the Anthropocene.
The prefix “perma”, central to Piksel 2025, offers a conceptual framework for this discussion. It invokes permaculture, the agricultural practice of imitating ecosystems; permacomputing, a movement for sustainable digital practices; permafrost, a fragile and rapidly changing ecological system; and permacrisis, the contemporary sense of ongoing instability.
This program brings together art, architecture, ecology, and technology to spark new imaginaries and practical solutions for a sustainable future. By situating soils at the center of ecological and digital debates, Perma/Soils – Interdisciplinary Strategies for Soil Recuperation highlights the deep interconnections between land, community, and infrastructure—from contaminated mines in Norway to the infrastructures of the cloud.
Program
Seminar @ Natural History Museum of Bergen
10:00–13:00
10:05 – Dr. Davina Kaur Patel (Anthropogenic Soils, UiO)
Soil, migration, and belonging in Punjab, India - diasporic connections to land.
10:40 – Taylor Alaina Liebenstein Smith
The poetics of permafrost in a +2°C world.
11:15 – Ewen Chardronnet (Makery.info; More-than-Planet EU Project)
Agricultural runoff, algae blooms, and reimagining planetary imaginaries.
11:50 – Maya Minder (Soil Assembly, Hackteria)
Fermentation practices and community projects for soil recuperation.
12:30 – Marina Otero Verzier (Architect; Harvard GSD Wheelwright Prize)
Computational Compost – on the intertwined ecologies of soil and digital extraction.
Screenings
14:00–16:00
• Compost Computacional — Marina Otero Verzier
• Umi No Oya (ウミノヲヤ) - The Mother of the Sea - Maya Minder & Ewen Chardronnet
A seaweed & oyster bar hosted by Minder and Chardronnet accompanies the event, celebrating multispecies interdependence.
Exhibition @ Studio 207 & Alt Går Bra Lokale
Featured works include:
- The Toxins Colour System (work in progress) - Cecilia Jonsson
- Compost Computacional - Marina Otero Verzier
- Solar4Rain – an atmospheric PUNK symbiosis - Maite Cajaraville & Gisle Frøysland
- Umi No Oya – The Mother of the Sea - Maya Minder & Ewen Chardronnet
- A feeling of longing that freezes and thaws - Taylor Alaina Liebenstein Smith
Bios
Dr. Davina Kaur Patel – Medical doctor and researcher (Anthropogenic Soils), working on agriculture, health, and multispecies care in Punjab.
Taylor Alaina Liebenstein Smith – Artist exploring ecological fragility, toxins, and permafrost ecosystems.
Ewen Chardronnet – Writer, curator, Soil Assembly co-founder, and contributor to More-than-Planet.
Maya Minder – Artist and fermenter connecting ecological practices, food culture, and community soil projects.
Marina Otero Verzier – Architect researching infrastructures, ecologies, and computational environmental impacts.