Ecophilia –find your nature

Meta.Morf 2022 – Ecophilia

Trondheim international biennale for art and technology
April 1 – August 14, 2022

Nature has gone estranged. Our link to it is more important than ever. Our home planet needs our care and love. This is what Ecophilia is about. And you cannot avoid it. Nature is all about your lifeworld. Where you live, how you live and how you love it.

Ecophilia reflects not only a necessity, but also a deep desire to connect with nature. But what is nature really? Except for some ecological dreamscapes?

Ecology comes from Greek Oikos, meaning home. In this age of the Anthropocene, our Oikos is constantly altered by new technologies, man-induced environmental disasters, biotechnological wonders, and blurred borders between the made and the natural.

Doomsday scenarios and environmental apocalypses have become iconic images of nature today. The same dystopias of the future lure us back to most romantic portraits of pristine landscapes – a paradise lost.

Some wonderful place we once belonged. What is that nature we so desperately worship, seek to love, protect, and save? Does it even exist?

After all, there is no universal understanding of nature. It is a cultural construct. There is no perfect love for it either. Are the many varieties of ecophilias manifesting our changing relationship of nature? Can one be too much of an ecophile?

Meta.Morf 2022 – The seventh Trondheim international biennale for art and technology – manifests a critical take on our relationship to nature. The biennale will, through conferences, exhibitions, performances, screenings and workshops, critically question what it truly means to be an ecophile in the age of the Anthropocene.

Zane Cerpina / Espen Gangvik, 2022

Meta.Morf – manifesto & people

Meta.Morf manifesto

Artistic and scientific research are continuously challenging and changing our perspectives on life, often implying new philosophical and existential questions.

Biotechnology, nanotechnology, neuroscience and new communication and computer technologies are examples of fields that expand the boundaries of artistic practice, which in turn can contribute to alternative approaches to scientific problems and technology development.

The artist as conveyor and interpreter of new knowledge and research, plays a crucial role in society’s ability to maintain an adequate discourse regarding the use of new technologies and scientific advancements.

Meta.Morf aims for a broader audience to among others present artists, musicians, writers, philosophers, and scientists with projects that in various ways help us broaden our perspectives on life itself.


Meta.Morf 2022 curators

Alexandra Murray-Leslie (AU/NO), Professor Trondheim Academy of Fine Art
Anniken Storhaug (NO), Artistic director, Dropsfabrikken
Daniel Vincent Hansen (SE/NO). General manager, Heimdal Kunstforening
Espen Gangvik (NO), General manager, TEKS – Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre
Frida Marie Edlund (SE/NO), Museum pedagogue, Kunstmuseet Nord-Trøndelag
Hege Tapio (NO), Artist and PhD Candidate, OsloMet
Jeremy Welsh (UK/NO)
Kristin Bergaust (NO), Professor OsloMet
Lars Pedersen (NO), Planetarium manager, Vitensenteret i Trondheim
Lena Katrine Sokki (NO), General manager, Babel visningsrom for kunst
Marie Veie Sandvik (NO), Project manager, Stiklestad Nasjonale Kultursenter
Pål Bøyesen (NO), ReMida Trondheim
Zane Cerpina (LV/NO), Project manager, TEKS – Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre
Åshild Adsen (NO), Director, Vitensenteret i Trondheim


Meta.Morf advisory board 2022

Erich Berger (FI), Director of the Bioart Society
Hege Tapio (NO), NOBA – Norwegian BioArt Arena, FeLT Futures of Living Technologies, OsloMet
Jurij Krpan (SL), Artistic Director of Kapelica Gallery, Kersnikova Institute
Michel van Dartel (NL), Director of V2_ and Research Professor at CARADT
Ursula Münster (DE/NO), Associate Professor and Director, Oslo School of Environmental Humanities, UiO

Meta.Morf initial advisory board 2007 – 2010

Alex Adriaansens (NL), former director, V2_, Rotterdam († 2019)
Clive Kellner (ZA), former director, Johannesburg Art Gallery
Jemima Rellie (UK),  
Jeremy Welsh (UK/NO), Artist, former professor, Trondheim Academy of Fine Art,
Bergen Academy of Art and Design
Zhang Ga (CN/US), Curator, The National Museum of Modern Art, Beijing


Meta.Morf 2022 core team

Zane Cerpina, Curator,  producer, designer
Frank Ekeberg, Translator
Øystein Kjørstad Fjeldbo,Technical manager
Espen Gangvik, Director, curator, logistics manager, producer
Daniel Vincent Hansen, Communications assistant
Jørgen Hallås Skatland,Travel manager
Juliane Schütz, Photographer
Joel Hynsjö, Concert producer
Magdaléna Manderlová, Hospitality manager


Meta.Morf is produced by
TEKS – Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre

TEKS employees.
General manager: Espen Gangvik
Project manager and curator: Zane Cerpina
Communications assistant:: Daniel Vincent Hansen
TEKS engage temporary co-workers for projects when applicable.

TEKS board members.
Board leader: Pia Skog Hagerup
Board members: Trond Åm, Leiken Viand Sigurd Saue