Through projection mapping and real-time environmental data, the façade of Kunstsilo is transformed into a living system – an organism in growth, shaped by climate, atmosphere, and time.
The installation is on view outdoors every evening on Kunstsilo’s façade from 7 November 2025 to 15 February 2026. It is part of Kunstsilo’s long-term collaboration with The Lumen Prize, an international award that celebrates art created with technology.
What Is Growth in a World Out of Balance?
With Growing, Lab212 sheds light on one of the most complex and urgent issues of our time: growth. The work takes as its starting point invasive and alien species – plants and animals that, often through human activity, are introduced into ecosystems where they do not belong. These species are now among the greatest threats to global biodiversity, their spread closely linked to globalization, climate change, and ecological fragility.
“Growth is an impossible ideal. In nature, it always goes with decline: what grows on one side must decay on the other.”
In Growing, this duality is made tangible: growth is not only development, but destruction. Not only expansion, but displacement. By collecting local environmental data – temperature, humidity, air quality – the installation generates visual growth patterns inspired by invasive plants. These digital organisms emerge and recede like a climate-responsive neural network, projected directly onto Kunstsilo.
The result is a constantly shifting artwork that draws attention to what is invisible, yet undeniably present: the slow, often overlooked processes that shape both nature and society.
The work also reflects a deeper cultural and ethical question: how do we relate to growth in a time when growth is both needed and dangerous? How do we live with the contradiction between progress and sustainability, between technology and ecology?
About the Artists: Lab212
Lab212 is an interdisciplinary art collective founded in Paris in 2008. For over 15 years, they have worked at the intersection of art, science, and technology, and are especially known for their immersive and participatory installations that translate light, sound, movement, and data into poetic, physical experiences.
Their practice is guided by a critical view of technology’s role in a fragile world. Their projects create spaces where the rules are partly defined and partly evolving – shaped by nature, by visitors, and by the surrounding environment.
Lab212 has exhibited at some of the world’s leading institutions for digital and contemporary art, including the Barbican Centre and the V&A Museum in London, Miraikan Museum in Tokyo, Museum of Digital Art in Zurich, DMuseum in Seoul, and Centre Pompidou in Paris. They have received numerous awards and recognitions from institutions including the Sundance Film Festival, Ars Electronica, and The Lumen Prize.
Growing is created by Nicolas Guichard and Béatrice Lartigue, with technical development by Lucas Sifoni.
→ Learn more about Lab212 at lab212.org
Lumen X Kunstsilo: Art, Technology & Ecology
Growing is presented as part of Kunstsilo’s ongoing collaboration with The Lumen Prize, a leading international award for art created with technology. Kunstsilo has been a partner since 2020 and is the initiator of the Lumen Nordic Award, which highlights Nordic artists working in digital media.
To mark the opening of Growing, Kunstsilo will host a weekend of talks and the official Lumen Prize Award Ceremony. The programme is inspired by The Liminal Review – Lumen’s newly launched trend report exploring current developments in digital art, artificial intelligence, and emerging visual languages.