OTHER PROJECTS BY STUDIO ROOSEGAARDE
The Urban Sun is one of eight “dreamscapes” that Daan Roosegaarde will present through to 2022. “A dreamscape is a dream that we turn into reality to improve life,” the Dutch innovator says. “All eight aim to address the way we live at the moment.”
That philosophy is visible in an award-winning body of work that tackles urgent, practical issues affecting the way we live – from clean air and energy to cleaning up space junk. Several of the artist’s projects reveal a fascination with light. His “Smog-Free Project” attacked air pollution with a seven-metre-tall vacuum cleaner using positive ionisation technology. Companion designs included air-cleaning bicycles and billboards, and a smog-free engagement or wedding ring made of compressed air particles.
The solar-powered fluorescent “Van Gogh Bicycle Path”, made from thousands of twinkling stones, was part of a programme to build interactive, sustainable roads that respond to live traffic situations.
Roosegaarde’s latest project debuted in January. “Grow” showed how the lights more commonly associated with nightclubs can make agriculture more sustainable while reaffirming the importance of farmers. Building on studies carried out at Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands, Roosegaarde turned a 20,000-square-metre leek field into a living social artwork by using what he called “light recipes” – combinations of solar-powered red, blue and ultraviolet lights to enhance plant growth and resilience, and halve pesticide use. LED lights have been replicating the sun’s action in indoor vertical farms and greenhouses for years now – including in the UAE – but “Grow” shows how large-scale outdoor farms could improve crop yields while reducing their environmental impact.
“Grow is an artwork, but it’s also a platform to speed up the [application of] light science because now people know about it and want it. We created this demand that was not really there before – I mean, I have 220 emails of farmers in Peru,” Roosegaarde says, with a laugh.
As a city boy, the artist confesses that “Grow” gave him new appreciation of what it takes to grow his food. That message has already reached some 665 million people through a film on his website, but will go further when the exhibition travels to 40 countries over the next few months, highlighting the native crops in each country.