TRANSFORMING ENERGY, Collectif Berru, Season France – Portugal

For the cross season France-Portugal 2022, Culturgest (Portugal) and COAL (France), as part of their collaboration as a member of the European network Art Climate Transition, invite the collective Berru to produce a new work around the energy issues of the Ocean. It will be presented for the first time at Culturgest Porto from July¹ to September 4, 2022 and then at Vidéoformes (France) in the spectacular Chapelle de l’Oratoire in Clermont-Ferrand from September 16 to October 2, 2022.

The Berru collective, composed of Bernardo Bordalo, Rui Nó and Sérgio Coutinho and founded in Porto, in 2015, is interested in the synergies and challenges posed by the increasing interaction between the biological and technological worlds. Their works combine living and non-living systems to reveal their complexity and speculate on their potential collaborations to create sustainable systems.

With Transforming Energy, the collective explores techniques for capturing low-frequency energies such as the movement of the sea and the means of storing them in biological batteries. The installation plunges us into a subaquatic universe, where energy flows and vibrations of the matter reason. This unstable and ever-changing equilibrium carries with it the memory of the agile and evolving nature of ecosystems. It also asks us about the real cost of energy and its finitude.

In parallel, a series of conferences on eco-acoustics and energy issues of the ocean, bringing together researchers and Franco-Portuguese artists, and mounted in partnership with the University of Clermont-Ferrand completes the exhibition. More information in the dedicated article here.

In France, the event is part of the France-Portugal 2022 Season, the European Heritage Days, and Clermont-Ferrand’s bid to become European Capital of Culture 2028.

The France-Portugal Season

Decided by the President of the French Republic and the Portuguese Prime Minister, the France-Portugal Season will be held simultaneously in both countries between February 12 and October 31, 2022.
This Cross Season, which is part of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, is an opportunity to highlight the closeness and friendship that bind our two countries, embodied in particular by the presence in France of a very large Luso-descendant community, and in Portugal of a growing number of French expatriates, two dynamic, mobile and active communities, which constitute an exceptional human and cultural link between our two countries.

In addition to a program that highlights the Europe of Culture, the France-Portugal 2022 Season also wishes to make a concrete commitment to the themes that bring us together and that our two countries defend in the Europe of the 21st century: the ecological and solidarity-based transition, notably through the theme of the Ocean, gender equality, investment in youth, respect for difference and the values of inclusion.

Through more than 200 events, mostly co-constructed by French and Portuguese partners, the France-Portugal Season aims to highlight the many collaborations between artists, researchers, intellectuals, students and entrepreneurs, between our cities and regions, between our cultural institutions, universities, schools and associations: all initiatives that deeply and sustainably link our territories and contribute to the construction of Europe.