Solar artwork at the Trajan’s Markets: Secrets of the Sun: Millennial Meditations and New Light on Rome 2000 by Erskine P

The idea of combining art, history, science and technology to educate people on solar energy started to emerge within ISES ITALIA in 1992 and became a program for schoolchildren in the year 2000.

1.1 SOS — Secrets of the Sun — Millennial Meditations

During the preparatory work promoted by ISES for UNCED (U. N. Conference on Energy and Development), on March 21, 1992 — shortly before the Earth Summit in Rio and on the date of the spring solstice — Erskine’s solar art exhibition, "SOS — Secrets of the Sun — Millennial Meditations" opened at Trajan’s Markets in Rome: a unique event in a unique venue (Silvi, 1992).

The exhibition was organized through the joint efforts of the Italian Section of ISES, the artist, the City of Rome’s Culture Department, the Archaeological Superintendence, the City of Rome, with a $300,000 grant from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation.

In the prestigious setting of Trajan’s Markets, one of the most spectacular architectural complexes in the heart of Imperial Rome, still standing above the ancient Roman forum after two thousand years, Erskine installed a computer-driven outdoor heliostat, four mirrors to reflect the white Sunlight on prismatic devices projecting the play of coloured spectrum light into a series of darkened rooms. The colours of the solar spectrum, projected on the ancient walls, marble fragments and other creations by Erskine produced an impressive symbiosis of art, history, science, technology, architecture, and archaeology.

Fig. 1 — The heliostat in the »SOS-Secrets of the Sun’1 exhibition installed at the centre of Trajan’s Markets in Rome, 1992, powered by photovoltaic modules visible in the foreground

The exhibition’s symbolic messages evoked not only the relationships existing between the sun and life on earth, between the beauties of nature and the

environmental threats caused by humans, but also those between the sun and the civilizations that preceded ours, as dramatically represented by the vestiges of Trajan’s Markets, and the civilizations we could build by

coming to a new understanding of the connections between human culture, scientific and technological progress, and the biosphere we inhabit.

Before this event, the Italian Section had always focused essentially on the technical and scientific aspects of solar energy. With the efforts put into staging the "SOS — Secrets of the Sun," the Section intended to underline the importance it attributed to the cultural factors that, in an era of great technological progress, might constitute a far more difficult obstacle on the path to a solar future. The huge heliostat and the other technologically sophisticated solar systems that Erskine was allowed to install in the ancient edifice of Trajan’s Markets were seen as a wake-up call to meditate on the great cultural challenges we would meet in attempting to achieve widespread use of solar technologies.

The installation of the high-tech heliostat and other devices on the archaeological remains of the Trajan’s Markets was possible at the end of a labyrinthine course and a controversial authorization process for the installations. From one side the authorities of the monument were concerned for the impact of the installation on the monument itself. On the other side the proposed solar art exhibition at the Trajan’s Markets was seen as a powerful cultural means to call people’s attention to solar energy. The proposal came when world concerns about the environment were highlighted in the international agenda with the organization of the Rio Earth Summit.

Aesthetics and art were only one part of Erskine’s work. By means of Sunlight, text, and sound, Secrets of the Sun attempted to address such diverse issues as: the interaction of the Sun with the Earth, solar energy radiation spectrum and its interaction with the architecture of the Trajan’s Markets, advanced solar technologies, human colour vision, global warming, ozone depletion, urban acid deposition, mass species extinction, pollution and noise from car traffic, preservation of cultural heritage and more.