As part of the digital art component of the EXTRA residencies, iMAL is hosting Dasha Ilina and Marie Verdeil for a month in a cross-residency with Antre Peaux (Bourges, France).

During their residency, Dasha and Marie want to make the concept of energy and the contemporary issues surrounding its storage more tangible.

Through an interactive installation that runs counter to Tesla's Gigafactories - giant battery factories for its electric vehicles - the artists are proposing a radical opposition not only to the massively extractivist production of lithium batteries by Big Techs, but more broadly to the use of finite resources.

Through a participatory process of collecting and experimenting with used batteries, they aim to engage the public in a discussion about energy autonomy, degrowth, the commons and the importance of public transport, at a time of global environmental crises.

Their residency at iMAL will conclude with a presentation and a workshop during The Cookery 2025.

In November, they will join our friends at Antre Peaux for the second part of their residency.

Dasha Ilina is a Russian techno-critical artist based in Paris, France. Through the employment of low-tech and DIY approaches, her work questions the desire to incorporate modern technology into our daily lives by highlighting the implications of actually doing so. Her practice engages the public in order to facilitate a space for the development of critical thought regarding social imperatives for care of oneself and others, privacy in the digital age, and the reflexive contemporary urge to turn to technology for answers.

She is the founder of the Center for Technological Pain, a project that proposes DIY solutions to health problems caused by digital technologies for which she has received an Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica.

Her project Technosommeil is in the collection of digital art works of the Département Val-de-Marne (Mallapixels). Ilina’s work has been exhibited at institutions such as Centre Pompidou (FR), MU Artspace (NL), Gaîté Lyrique (FR), Hartware Medienkunstverein Dortmund (DE), NeMe (CY), ISEA 2023 (FR) as well as various talks, workshops, and performances held internationnally.

She is also the co-director of NØ SCHOOL, a summer school that focuses on critical research around the social and environmental impacts of information and communication technologies.

Marie Verdeil (she/her) is a french designer based in Brussels, Belgium. Its cross-disciplinary projects - websites, teaching guides, installations, publications, tools, etc. - claim an autonomous, transparent, eco-conscious and critical approach to technology. Since graduating from the Design Academy of Eindhoven (NL, 2022), she approaches design as a means of (re)thinking everyday imaginaries that reveal and align with planetary limits.

Marie works closely with Low-tech Magazine, an alternative, techno-critical medium. She is responsible for the visual direction of the magazine (graphics, illustrations, documentation). Together with Kris De Decker, they design low-tech prototypes, draw up self-build guides and co-host workshops that encourage us to question our relationship with energy through practice, hacking and subversion.

She has worked with various European institutions in a variety of formats: round-table discussions, presentations, practical workshops, residencies (FabLab Barcelona (ES), Gentler Futures Festival (PO), Fiber Festival (NL), Het Nieuwe Instituut (NL), etc.).

EXTRA, the programme to support and promote French contemporary creation in Belgium, was launched in 2016 by the French Embassy in Belgium, with the support of the Institut français in Paris.

Every year, EXTRA selects and supports a series of artistic projects led by Belgian cultural operators and French artists. As a showcase for the new contemporary scene, EXTRA highlights the uniqueness of French creativity in the visual arts, performing arts, design and digital creation, with a particular focus on innovative and committed projects.