In 2025 Ars Electronica joins forces with Budweis 2028 to launch a prototype residency exploring the intersections of art, science, and ecology.
Type: Workshop & Residency
Duration: March 1 – October 30, 2025
City, Country: Budweis, Czech Republic
Collaborating experts: Robertina Šebjanič (Artist and expert for artxscience collaborations), Lenka Marcínová (architect and local stakeholder), Anne Daebeler (Scientist at CAS Biology Center), Magdalena Wutkovska (Scientist at CAS Biology Center), Jakub Pešek (farmer and local stakeholder)
As part of the European Capital of Culture’s long-term vision, the program invites artists, scientists, and regional stakeholders to collaborate in investigating pressing environmental questions around climate resilience and sustainable agriculture. Hosted in South Bohemia in both a rural and urban context, this prototype residency emphasizes situated knowledge, co-creation, and regenerative practices. The team, comprising an artist, two scientists and a farmer, will explore how creative methodologies can address regional challenges while contributing to a broader ecological imagination. After learning about Budweis’ specific future challenges, the expert group will co-design a prototype residency as a means to search for solutions to these challenges. The learnings and concept-outcomes will be shared at the Agriculture Fair in Budweis in August and at the Ars Electronica Festival in September.
Partner
Budweis 2028 – European Cultural Capital
The guiding theme of Budweis 2028 is (PERMA)CULTURE—a call to cultivate sustainable growth, deep connections, and cultural resilience inspired by natural systems. Drawing from the life cycle of a plant, the artistic concept emphasizes long-term development: projects begin as seeds—local initiatives, participatory activities, and European collaborations—that gradually blossom into impactful artistic outcomes. Set in a rural region, Budweis reimagines the role of culture by bringing permaculture principles into the city, bridging nature, society, and creativity. The programme fosters a living cultural ecosystem, where artists, scientists, and citizens take on the roles of caregivers, connectors, and creators. Here, culture isn’t just entertainment—it’s a force for social renewal, joy, and resilience, designed to outlast the ECOC title and thrive for years to come.
www.budejovice2028.eu
Ars Biologica is a flagship project of Budweis ECOC 2028, designed to spark bold collaborations between art, science, and society. Bringing together local communities, cultural organizations, the University of South Bohemia, and the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences—as well as national and European partners—the project tackles the local impacts of global climate change, focusing on agriculture, food production, land and water management. This year, the project features three main components: art-science residencies, interdisciplinary summer sessions within an independent study program, and a scientific symposium.
Biology Centre CAS is the main scientific partner for this investigation. CAS is a Czech public research institution in Budweis founded in 2006 by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It brings together five previously separate scientific laboratories and service center providing administrative and technical services. The Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences performs mainly fundamental and also applied research, and provides education in a number of biological disciplines. Research conducted at the Biology Centre predominantly addresses ecological themes, with a significant emphasis on biomedicine. The research involves collaboration across disciplines, use of diverse methodological approaches (molecular biology, genetics, taxonomy, field ecology, mathematical modelling, etc.), and a combination of analytical and holistic approaches to problem solving.
www.bc.cas.cz
Credits
Robertina Šebjanič – artist and expert for artxscience collaborations
Lenka Marcínová – garden and landscape architect and local stakeholder
Anne Daebeler – scientist at CAS Biology Center, group leader at the Institute of Soil Biology and Biogeochemistry, Head of the Microbes CaN Cycle Lab
Magdalena Wutkovska – scientist at CAS Biology Center, postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Soil Biology and Biogeochemistry, Microbes CaN Cycle Lab
Jakub Pešek – farmer and local stakeholder
Biology Center CAS – scientific partner for this investigation.
The program is facilitated and hosted by Laura Welzenbach (Head of Ars Electronica Export) and managed by Zita Čechová (ECOC 2028 Ars Biologica Project Manager).