- The exhibition traces, through institutional advertising campaigns, the evolution of Spanish society's relationship with energy over the last five decades.
- The exhibition is located in the Condensadores room, a space of La Térmica Cultural that opens its doors to the public for the first time.
- Ponferrada is the first stop in the national itinerancy of the exhibition
This Friday, July 14, at 7:00 p.m., the exhibition will open its doors to the public. Connected. Energy and Ecoscience. The exhibition, which will remain open to the public until October 15 in Ponferrada, offers a tour of the relationship that Spanish society has had with energy throughout democracy, through advertising campaigns to raise awareness among the population. The exhibition uses only reused, recycled and recyclable materials, and is the first stop on its tour of Spain after its official presentation last March at Matadero Madrid.
Accessed through the main entrance of La Térmica Cultural, this exhibition is located in the Condensadores room, an impressive space that occupies what used to be the lower part of the turbines of the Compostilla I thermal power plant and which will house the most innovative traveling exhibitions. Several companies have collaborated in the realization of this exhibition and, additionally for the exhibition in Ponferrada, Tvitec, LM and Cupa Group have contributed with various exhibits.
Through the advertising campaigns launched first by the Centro de Estudios de la Energía (CEE) and then by its successor, the Instituto para la Diversificación y el Ahorro Energético (IDAE), this exhibition brings together the advertisements and works of more than twenty artists. The exhibition illustrates how the social perception of different energy sources has evolved, from fossil fuels to green hydrogen.
Connected. Energy and Ecoscience takes as its starting point the use of fossil fuels and how their availability and price have moved at the pace set by armed conflicts. From the Yom Kippur War to the invasion of Ukraine, from the Iranian revolution to the Gulf Wars, geopolitical tensions have marked social perception.
In the last half century, renewable energies have been gaining prominence and have become the key to achieving an increasingly necessary energy autonomy that places Spain in a privileged position. Thanks to the natural resources at its disposal, Spain is one of the 15 countries in the world that consumes the most clean energy and is one of the world's largest consumers of renewable energies. Conectados shows how it has evolved over the last few decades to reach this point.
From economic savings to energy efficiency
The evolution of the meaning that energy efficiency has had for society, the guiding thread of this exhibition, is key to understanding how both institutional advertising and the mentality of the Spaniards themselves have been changing.
In contrast to the dominant conception of the 1970s, which was purely economic, where greater energy efficiency meant nothing more than greater savings, from the 1980s onwards, and especially with the turn of the century, Spanish society began to become aware of the important role that efficient energy use plays in the fight against climate change.
This idea, highlighted today, is not only relevant in economic terms, as it was at the beginning of democracy, and in terms of environmental awareness, as it has been in recent times, but also in terms of strategic autonomy: lower energy consumption translates into less dependence of Spain on fossil fuels, such as natural gas, which require its importation due to the lack of them.
Starting with hydroelectric generation, the protagonist in the 1970s, and going through the implementation of the first photovoltaic plants and wind farms dating back to 1984, the exhibition also reviews the implementation of other lesser-known renewables, such as the use of waste to produce clean fuels, cogeneration or biomass, all of them a prelude to the birth of green hydrogen, which is postulated as one of the keys to achieve the total decarbonization of the economy.
This journey, as the exhibition reminds us, is not over yet and challenges remain. The reduction of dependence on fossil fuels, consumer protection, the transformation of the energy system, energy autonomy and responsible consumption, the consolidation of renewables and econscience are the six challenges that, through the photographs of more than twenty artists, illustrates Connected. These challenges, however, have not prevented Spanish society from continuing to move towards more environmentally friendly energy consumption.
Exhibition and graphic design
In the exhibition Connected exhibition uses only reused, recycled and recyclable materials. The responsibility for the exhibition and graphic design, developed from cardboard tubes, is the result of a call from the Madrid Designers Association. Easily assembled and transportable, it is expected to visit other places in Spain in the near future.
