TBA21–Academy and Sony CSL-Rome invite artists, researchers, and cultural practitioners to Ocean Space, Venice, for an afternoon of artist presentations and interdisciplinary conversations.

Bringing together art, science, technology and territories, Buen-TEK is S+T+ARTS' first initiative in South America. It takes inspiration from the philosophy and political movement of Buen Vivir (Sumak Kawsay), which foregrounds ways of living in harmony with ecological cycles and collective life. 

The program includes presentations by three S+T+ARTS Buen-TEK resident artists: Mari Nagem, Anthony Tandazo, and Licida Vidal, whose work engages with urban and marine environments in Ubatuba, Salvador, and Fortaleza, three coastal cities of Brazil. Their projects open spaces for reflection on how transdisciplinary research can engage ecological imbalance, urban inequality, and oceanic transformation through forms of attention grounded in place, reciprocity, and experimentation.

The artist presentations are followed by a roundtable conversation between scientists, researchers and cultural practitioners from the project’s Brazilian and European partner institutions. Moderated by Belgian scientist and artist Luc Steels, the afternoon will blend artistic presentations and interdisciplinary dialogue, examining how art-driven research intersects with scientific inquiry, technological innovation, ecological thinking, and community-rooted ways of doing.

• 15:00 | Welcome remarks 
• 15:15 | Art, Science, and Ecological Care - An introduction to S+T+ARTS Buen-TEK residency program
• 15:30 | Artist presentation: Mari Nagem - The Right to Shade
• 15:55 | Artist presentation: Licida Vidal - a spoonful of salt and a spoonful of sugar: solutions for a feverish ocean
• 16:20 | Interdisciplinary Dialogue moderated by Luc Steels
• 17:25 | Artist presentation: Anthony Tandazo - Sound Dialogues: What Do Cities Tell Us?

Mari Nagem is a Brazilian interdisciplinary artist exploring the relationship between nature and technology. Recent projects include commissions from the Tomie Ohtake Institute for COP30 in Belém and Mostra 3M in São Paulo, a residency at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, and a honorable mention from SFER IK Museion, the Marcantonio Vilaça Prize, and the Ox-Bow Fellowship.

Anthony Tandazo is a new media artist and composer born in Loja, Ecuador. He studies Musical Creation at the University of the Arts in Guayaquil, with a focus on digital technologies such as Ableton or Max msp. Tandazo’s interdisciplinary practice looks at the diverse Andean rhythms from Ecuador, implementing audiovisual software to mix traditional rhythms with contemporary sounds.

Licida Vidal is a visual artist based in Ubatuba, Brazil. Her practice weaves together subaltern knowledge, intimate experiences, and academic research in a search for strategies of habitability and the restoration of autonomy to bodies and territories. She has participated in several artist residencies, such as Terra Saúva (São Paulo, 2023) or Respiro Rural (São Paulo, 2024). 

Luc Steels is a pioneer of artificial intelligence research in Europe. After studies at the MIT AI Lab in the late 1970s under Marvin Minsky, he returned to Europe as professor of computer science at the Free University of Brussels, where he founded the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In 1996 he became founding director of the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris. He later held research positions at ICREA and the Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona and Venice. Alongside his scientific work, he engages in the arts through collaborations, curating science-art exhibitions, and composing music.