First public presentation of Ecosistema Biónico at Baluarte, Pamplona
In 2025, María Castellanos and Alberto Valverde presented Ecosistema Biónico. Parentescos entre plantas, máquinas y humanas in the exhibition Memoria Artística de los Encuentros, held at the Sala de la Muralla at Baluarte in Pamplona. The exhibition brought together the six projects selected through the Memoria Artística de los Encuentros 2024 open call, developed within the framework of Encuentros de Pamplona / Iruñeko Topaketak, the international biennial of culture, art and thought.
Ecosistema Biónico explores forms of coexistence and learning between plants, machines and humans through the creation of an ecosystem in which plant organisms and autonomous robots interact with one another. Sensors based on plant electrophysiology record the plants’ electrical activity and translate it into data that influences the behaviour of robots equipped with artificial intelligence. The robots interact with the plants through sounds, lights and subtle physical contact and, through learning processes, progressively modify their behaviour in response to the signals they receive.
The exhibition also featured projects by Leire Ipas, Elisa Arteta, Marina Lameiro and Tania Hernández Velasco, Protocolectivo, and Dick Rekalde. The works emerged from experiences and reflections generated during Encuentros de Pamplona 2024 and addressed, through different artistic practices, questions related to coexistence, perception, identity, the relationship between the physical and the digital, and forms of encounter between different agents.