Solar Plant

Spaghetti Junctions: Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller

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Saturday 16 April to Sunday 29 May 2011

Opening: Friday 15 April, 6.30 – 8.30 pm
Film screening and Q&A with the artists: Saturday 16 April 2.30 pm

Cubitt Gallery presents the first UK solo exhibition by Swiss artists Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller. Through video, sculptural-recreation, text and archive material the artists explore two short-lived experiments with solar energy, both marking points of change or crisis in the history of oil consumption.

Sun of 1913 (2009) looks back to the first commercial-scale solar power plant, built in 1913, in Egypt under British mandate, by American engineer Frank Shuman. For a short period solar was the most economical form of power generation, cheaper than shipping coal from Britain. However, the plant ceased operation after one year, when at the onset of World War 1 the British Government began mass-scale crude oil production in Iran, precipitating a widespread turn to oil. The fate of Shuman’s solar plant is told through a narrative written with Egyptian writer Wageh George. A video projection shows two segments of the plant being reconstructed in Cairo by the artists and craftsmen.

A Curiosity, a Museum Piece and an Example of a Road not Taken (2006-2007) investigates former American president Jimmy Carter’s pioneering but ultimately futile energy programme. It culminated in his symbolic solar installation on the White House roof during the 1979 energy crisis, which was removed by the Ronald Regan administration. At Cubitt, Hemauer and Keller focus on the solar installation at the point of greatest potential: its design, construction and ceremonial launch. Archive contact sheets show the panels being installed. Carter’s speech inaugurating them – calling America to break its addiction to imported oil – can be read from a sculptural recreation of a presidential lectern.

Using re-creation and re-enactment to revitalise the optimism of these pioneering projects, Hemauer and Keller also highlight the time that has since lapsed; that these were “roads not taken”. They revisit episodes in the history of oil and solar energy to ask questions about the present energy situation: increased dependence on, and continued conflict over, fossil fuels. Since 2003 the focus of their research-based practice has been the concept of energy as a defining force of modern society, including works and performances that herald the post-petroleum age and map the relationship between the history of energy and modern art.

Christina Hemauer (born 1973 Zurich, Switzerland) and Roman Keller (born 1969 Liestal, Switzerland) live in Zurich, Switzerland. Recent exhibitions include United Alternative Energies, Centre for Contemporary Art, Aarhus, Denmark, curated by Latitudes (2011) and the 11th Cairo International Biennale, Cairo (2009).

Spaghetti Junctions is generously supported by the Arts Council England, Outset Contemporary Art Fund, Pro Helvetia, Solar UK, The Zabludowicz Collection and Matt’s Gallery.
Film screening with artists Q&A – Saturday 16 April, 2.30 pm
A Road Not Taken (2010), 66 mins

This will be the UK premier of Hemauer and Keller’s documentary road trip film A Road Not Taken (2010). The film is structured around the conceptual act of finding and donating two of Carter’s solar panels to American history museums as the “museum pieces” he warned they might become. Through interviews (including with Carter) and archive footage the film investigates Carter’s energy programme in the context of his foreign policy on Iran during the 1979 oil crisis.

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Judith Carlton

Manager

Curators’ Choice print portfolio 2010

For images or to arrange a viewing, please follow this link: http://cubittartists.org.uk/

 

CUBITT

Gallery and Studios

8 Angel Mews

London N1 9HH

T +44 (0)20 7278 8226

W http://cubittartists.org.uk

Open Wednesday-Sunday 12-6pm

Registered Charity No. 1049653

Prague’s National Theatre Expands Solar Project

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Reprinted from Prague Daily Monitor: “National Theatre to have second solar plant” by Pavel Baroch, October 8, 2009

Prague – The National Theatre will have its second solar power station. After dark panels covered the roof of its operational building last year, technicians are now installing photovoltaic modules on top of the Nová scéna building.

“The power station could start operating already in the middle of November,” Miroslav Ružicka, deputy technical director at the theatre, told Aktuálne.cz.

The National Theatre is therefore conforming its dominant position in electricity production from solar radiation in Prague – it has the biggest solar power station in the capital city.

“The objective is to reduce energy costs in all National Theatre buildings in the long run,” said Ružicka. The solar power stations come as part of an extensive environmental project that the theatre management launched a few years ago.

Dozens of millions of crowns invested in making the theatre and auxiliary facilities “green” bear fruit already. According to the plan, the theatre was to save more than CZK 4 million just last year, but the actual saving was CZK 2 million higher.

Besides the photovoltaic power station, another contributor to the cost cuts was modern equipment hidden on the bottom floors of the historical building. The theatre uses for example waste heat, which brings savings in the order of thousands of crowns every day. The project counts on total savings of nearly CZK 50 million in ten years.

The solar power station on the roof of Nová scéna is bigger and more efficient than the “old” photovoltaic panels on the operational building. What they have in common is that both roofs needed new hydro insulation, so besides installing solar panels, workers will also seal the roof.

“We killed two birds with one stone,” said Ružicka. “The option involving photovoltaic modules is more expensive, but a mere insulation foil does not make any money.”

The theatre uses the savings achieved to repay the investment, and will even make money on it after some time. Moreover, the method chosen makes it possible to improve energy efficiency, and therefore to reduce emissions.

Last year, the more economical operation of the theatre reduced carbon dioxide emissions by more than a thousand tonnes. To give a comparison: every Czech releases about 12 tonnes of CO2 a year.

The second photovoltaic power station at the National Theatre will save a further 25 tonnes, and generate electricity that would suffice for 7-8 households that do not use electricity for heating.

The guaranteed lifespan of the power station, which cost roughly CZK 8 million including the hydro insulation, is thirty years.

“The return on investment is fifteen years,” said Ružicka. The theatre management plan to build another solar power station on the roof of its warehouse and other environmental projects, he added.

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