Ecosystems III: Solutions

Energy — Attraction — Iteration

Curators: Pavel Mrkus & Martin Pošta

In its thirteenth edition, Signal Festival presents the third chapter of the Ecosystems project, titled Solutions.
Amid the overwhelming influx of troubling news about our contemporary civilisation, it seems that once-functional geopolitical ecosystems are edging toward a critical state of decline. Uncertainty about the future has become a frequent theme in our conversations, whether concerning the environment, energy resources, political developments, social radicalisation, or military conflict. We seek solutions to our inner unrest in nature, relationships, entertainment, trust in technology and science, or admiration for art.
This year’s Signal Festival features contemporary artists who explore the intersection of technology and emotion. Their light-based, kinetic, and spectacular installations combine precision with intuition, algorithms with ephemerality, logic with chance, mathematics with gesture. They unite apparent opposites and offer a view of the world as a single, complex ecosystem of relationships. The solutions we choose in response to both personal and global crises often depend on our openness to perceiving life as a symbiotic organism full of paradoxes.
Energy – Attraction – Iteration are three physics-based terms that together form the fundamental spatiotemporal forces of our world. Yet their meanings are intriguingly ambiguous.

Energy comes from the Greek energeia, meaning will, power, or the ability to act.
Attraction, or gravitation, is a fundamental energy that holds the world together.
Iteration is a pursuit of solutions; iteration is repetition that creates rhythm.
The selected works and installations at this year’s Signal Festival transform these exact concepts into artistic metaphors, offering exceptional sensory experiences.
For the first time in the Czech Republic, Signal Festival presents a work by legendary pioneer of video art Bill Viola. His installation Tristan’s Ascension (The Sound of a Mountain Under a Waterfall) at the Church of St. Francis in the Convent of St. Agnes evokes the spiritual roots of European civilization while using contemporary film production techniques.
One of the most prominent voices on the Czech art scene, the Rafani collective, stages a performative project in a Prague street that sharply contrasts with Viola’s meditative environment through its biting sarcasm and critique of consumerist life.
Taiwanese art group Peppercorns presents a technologically and mathematically precise installation, a unique digital light dance across a water screen above the Vltava River.
In Riegrovy Sady, artist Pavla Sceranková invites visitors to co-create Constellations through the movement of pendulums.
David Přílučík and his collaborators explore the issues facing the riparian forests of the Soutok Protected Landscape Area, where the Dyje and Morava rivers meet—a vital part of Central Europe’s ecological heritage.
Spanish studio V.P.M. returns large-scale videomapping to the popular St. Ludmila Basilica at Náměstí Míru. Their project ITERATIONS (The Infinite Rhythm of the City) explores the structures and rhythms that shape urban life.
The second special videomapping, OVERLOЯD, was created for the Old Town Hall by the Italian studio mammasONica. Drawing on data models that quantify our living space, it simultaneously introduces the shadows of doubt and the loss of naturalness alongside the ideal of rationality.
The festival offers a total of 15 installations across two curated routes, showcasing contemporary digital and light art, ranging from interactive environments to performances and multimedia objects. As always, the programme is complemented by partner presentations and accompanying events.

Chapters in Detail
3.1 ENERGY
The term energy was coined by physicists in the mid-19th century, based on the Greek energeia, meaning will, power, or capacity to act. Humanity likely hasn’t yet discovered all possible forms of energy. Scientists believe most of the universe consists of a currently unknown form of matter that holds more than 70% of its energy. This is currently labelled as dark matter and dark energy. If this turns out not to be a form of matter at all, it would significantly change our understanding of the universe and the concepts of matter and energy. Contemporary physics still cannot explain its nature or the laws that govern its transformation. It’s also unclear whether the law of conservation of energy applies to the universe as a whole. Competing theories propose various solutions, but available experiments and observations remain inconclusive.
In art, energy is present in many ways—not only as a theme, ranging from environmental concerns to pure joy of life, but also as the very essence of creation, exhibition, and perception of art. It is also a technological prerequisite for the existence and presentation of festival installations. What kind of life do we choose if we take sustainability as a realistic vision? That is a question for each of us. The diverse reflections on energy in the artistic projects offer a broad spectrum of possible answers.

3.2 ATTRACTION
Attraction (from the verb to attract) refers to drawing in or pulling, both literally and metaphorically. In Latin: attractio.

In physics, attraction manifests as magnetism, gravity, nuclear, and other forces. The Moon, for example, remains in orbit due to Earth’s gravitational pull. Attraction is a fundamental energy that keeps the world together.
But attraction also refers to something entertaining, attention-grabbing, or memorable—a fairground ride, an event, a landmark. Attractive artworks draw in viewers, although attractiveness isn’t necessarily visual. It can arise through simple repetition or a good reputation. In the context of art, attraction is an ambivalent term. Site-specific installations—works created for particular spaces—transform ordinary locations into extraordinary experiences. They remind us that everyday reality can be viewed in an extraordinary way and that attraction is not merely a physical quantity, but perhaps a phenomenon that brings joy.

3.3 ITERATION
The principle of iteration is the repetition of a process in a changing environment.

Iteration is a method of problem-solving through repeated steps that bring us closer to a desired result, each repetition altering the context for the next move. It also simply means repetition. (From Latin iterare – to repeat.)
Art installations often work with iteration both formally and conceptually. Many geometric and light-based artworks rely on iteration, not only in terms of software but also visually, sonically, and compositionally. Repetitive rhythms generate tension, establish timelines, and open up space for new events. Digital and technological art is inherently iterative, especially through coding and programming. Our contemporary, technology-driven society, oriented around mass production, is a radical manifestation of this principle. But in contemporary art, iteration is embraced as a tool for creating harmony, order, and metaphor.