Earth Day, Sea and Space Exhibition - London April 2025
Landsec’s new 7,000-square-foot venue hosted the Sea & Space Exhibition, opening to the public on Earth Day to celebrate how Earth observation satellites and space technologies monitor the health of our planet and oceans, providing over 70% of global environmental data.
Presented by Space for a Better World and the Space for Art Foundation, the exhibition featured Petroc Sesti’s Tracing the Void, Heart of Okeanos, and Solar Relay. In partnership with Platform Earth, it also showcased the latest additions to the Carbon Collection by Rachel Whiteread, Jonathan Yeo, Emilie Pugh, Marina Abramović, Nigel Cooke, and others. The programme included the Ocean Film Awards and Screenings, bringing together scientists, artists, storytellers, astronauts, and ocean advocates in the landmark event Ocean, Culture, Life, uniting culture and conservation. The first three days welcomed over 20,000 visitors.
Solar Relay
Solar Relay is an installation that portrays and engages the energy and sound of the Sun. The piece is powered entirely by sunlight, with the water beneath reflecting and transforming the image, synchronized to the Sun’s sound as extrapolated from scientific recordings, creating a fully immersive experience. The reflected sunlight in water serves as a metaphor for our fragile, chemically altered biosphere beneath the Sun’s ceaseless activity.
After more than fifteen years of collaboration with solar scientists, Sesti developed Solar Relay to operate entirely independently of the terrestrial power grid. Photovoltaic panels and space telescopes capture light to power the artwork, and projections activate only when sufficient energy is achieved, presenting footage in intermittent sequences.
The work reflects Sesti’s ongoing interest in the convergence of art and science, exploring abstract states of matter through audio-visual manipulation of scientific data. It celebrates the 4K resolution data obtained by scientists at the Solar Dynamics Observatory, allowing unprecedented visual study of solar microfilaments and Coronal Mass Ejections. The high-resolution imagery highlights the interplay of order and chaos, capturing the violent beauty of solar energy and its effects on our planet, from the Aurora Borealis to satellite disruptions and electrical grid impacts.
Sesti notes, “Scientific breakthroughs and technology have given us the means to study, quantify, and convert raw energy. I feel it is our responsibility as artists to access this energy data, collaborate with scientists, and use it as a sculptural medium for public artworks. Solar Relay celebrates these singular phenomena as sublime expressions of violent beauty.”
The Sun first appeared in Sesti’s work in 2001 in collaboration with NASA, celebrating the first detailed solar footage from the SOHO space telescope for Suspended Animation. That piece included the previously unheard sound of the Sun, which has now been adapted and incorporated into Solar Relay.
2020
SOLAR POWERED
SOLAR | RELAY
MANIFESTA 13 MARSEILLE
INFINITE VILLAGE
From August 28th to October 4th, 2020 at Espace Jouenne & Maison Montgrand in Marseille
From October 16th to November 29th, 2020 at 109 in Nice
Space weather in a time of global warming, Petroc Sesti’s 4th iteration of Solar Relay focuses on solar storms and fragile atmosphere at the Infinite village.
Presented by The (He)art for (He)art Program and curated by Francisca Viudes, Cora Von Zezschwitz, and Tilman, Infinite Village formed part of the Les Parallèles du Sud program of the 13th edition of the Manifesta Biennale. Designed by artists and curators Cora Von Zezschwitz and Tilman (Canada / France / Germany) under the artistic direction of Francisca Viudes, founder of The (He)art for (He)art Program and artistic director of Espace Lympia, the project explores collective and participative engagement through architecture and sculpture.
Taking place at Espace Jouenne in Marseille and subsequently at the 109, a contemporary culture hub in Nice, Infinite Village functions as a social, artistic, and educational platform. Installations, performances, workshops, conferences, and projections engage local residents, international guests, associations, and the public, fostering new forms of togetherness and a humanist vision for the future.
As Nick Hackworth of Modern Forms writes, “Petroc Sesti’s immersive installation Solar Relay portrays and harnesses the energy of the Sun. The work, developed over fifteen years with leading solar scientists, interprets high-resolution 4K solar data through audio-visual translation and is powered entirely by sunlight, communicating the awe-inspiring, almost abstract power of our star.”
- Nick Hackworth Modern Forms
2017 - Solar Powered Solar Relay, Aeroplastics Gallery, Brussels
Sculpture In the City 2016
Now in its sixth year, the critically acclaimed Sculpture in the City returned to the Square Mile with contemporary works by internationally renowned artists. Petroc Sesti Studio’s inaugural digital installation was unveiled during this edition, alongside works by Sarah Lucas, William Kentridge, and Gavin Turk.
