Our best machines are made of sunshine is a group exhibition conceived by independent curator Vanina Saracino, developed and presented at Møre og Romsdal Kunstsenter in collaboration with MRK’s Artistic Director Jet Pascua. The exhibition presents a selection of works by Kent Chan, Maryna Makarenko, Hugo de Almeida Pinho, Gjertrud Hals, Amalia Valdés, and the collective work by Antonia Baehr, Jule Flierl, and Isabell Spengler.

Between late 2024 and 2025, solar activity reached its peak in the current eleven-year cycle. Some researchers have speculated that heightened solar intensity may correspond to shifts in human behavior, suggesting that increased radiation from our closest star could intensify emotional and social dynamics, even giving rise to humanity’s so-called “greatest madnesses” (Chizhevsky, 2018).

The sun radiates more energy in a single second than humanity has consumed throughout its entire history. Borrowing from Bataille, the central challenge of solar energy is not its scarcity, but how we learn to navigate its overwhelming abundance through intentional expenditure. While current discourse on renewable energy largely focuses on technological solutions and systemic challenges, the shift also requires an expanded understanding of energy—one that is post-anthropocentric, more-than-human, and rooted in metabolic interdependence. After all, “we are energy; our very being consists of the expenditure of quantities of energy” (Stoekl, 2007).

On October 3, 2024, the most intense solar flare in over a decade erupted. A sunspot extended its radiant arm outward, releasing charged particles that traveled toward Earth. Days later, its waves arrived—unseen, but measurable. What forces shape our lives in ways we cannot immediately perceive?

Can the connection between solar activity and terrestrial life offer a lens through which to contemplate excess, resonance, and the cosmic conditions of our daily existence? Within the complex and deeply heterogeneous fabric of humanity, how do we—as individuals, artists, and societies—navigate the currents of solar energy held within our very essence? How do we resonate with the dual pulse of stellar light?

…….In Amalia Valdés’ series of paintings Perpetual Memories (2022–2024), symbolic compositions draw from Pre-Columbian cosmologies, family constellations, and sacred geometries to form a personal mythology. Through these totemic paintings, personal and ancestral memory are linked and projected into the eternal cycles of light and energy.

Vanina Saracino