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Event History
Ninety Percent of Everything marks the first edition of an open call and residency programme promoted by U-BOOT Lab, a cultural association active in Genoa since 2012 and engaged in culture-based social innovation through the hybridisation of artistic and scientific research. Building on over ten years of experience developed through Zones Portuaires — an international festival and research platform opening the port to the city — the project expands U-BOOT Lab’s long-standing investigation into ports as ecological, social and cultural spaces. Conceived as an intensive pathway of situated research and training, Ninety Percent of Everything brings together young artist collectives, researchers and maritime professionals to critically address the relationship between maritime logistics, climate crisis and global consumption, fostering new forms of artistic inquiry and active citizenship.
What Makes this event different?
The residency unfolds not only in institutional and research spaces, but inside the port itself and at sea, through direct experience aboard operational cargo vessels. Selected artists live and work in close contact with ship crews, gaining privileged access to port infrastructures, maritime routines and logistical systems usually invisible to the public. This direct engagement transforms the port into a living laboratory, where artistic practice is informed by first-hand observation, data collection and shared daily life. By combining navigation, sound and data practices, scientific research and systemic design, the project offers an experience that goes beyond representation, enabling artists to translate maritime logistics into critical sound and visual landscapes rooted in real-world conditions.
The first edition of U-BOOT Lab’s international call, aimed at collectives of artists under 35 as part of the Ninety Percent of Everything project, has been extended until 12 April.
The cultural association, active in Genoa since 2012, offers the selected artists an art residency at Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, in the port and at sea, to foster new ecologies of global consumption.
The initiative aims to investigate the impact of maritime logistics on the climate crisis, exploring the port as a device linking trade flows, ecological balances and social and geopolitical dynamics.
The project is developed by U-BOOT Lab in collaboration with Fondazione Palazzo Ducale Genova, with the support of Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, within the framework of the “Starter – Culture and Creativity for the Environmental Challenge” call.
The deadline has been extended by ten days, until 12 April. The call is free to access and applications can be submitted via the online form at https://www.u-boot.it/blog/npoe/.
The call is open to collectives of artists under 35, national and/or international, working in the fields of sound and visual practices, either already formally established or newly formed for the purpose of the call. Two collectives will be selected, each composed of up to three artists, focusing respectively on sound and data art, or, alternatively, one interdisciplinary collective for a total of six artists. Each collective will receive a grant of €4,000, or €8,000 in the case of a single collective of six. Individual artists may apply by forming a collective within the specified limits.
The residency will take place in Genoa from 15 to 30 May 2026. Workspaces include Palazzo Ducale and the CNR-IAS experimental marine station, located within the port. A period at sea is also planned, aboard operational cargo vessels of the Grendi Group. Selected artists will gain access to port areas and logistical infrastructures normally forbidden to the public, and will spend time in close contact with the crews, participating in life on board. Through the collection of technical, sound and visual data, they will investigate the impact of maritime transport on the climate crisis, transforming the gathered information into sound and visual environments.
