Fantastic Planet (interactive)
Gustav Adolfs torg | Free admission
How do we find our way through the world? In 2014, neuroscientist John O’Keefe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of place cells, a type of neuron that enables the brain to recognize specific locations and navigate through space – the brain’s internal GPS.
Through the artwork Fantastic Planet (interactive), the artist invites visitors to explore these principles of spatial navigation for themselves. In the illuminated maze, watched over by two towering figures, visitors can test their internal GPS by first looking at the map of the maze, then feel their brain find its way through the labyrinth as they enter it.
Inspired by René Laloux’s cult film Fantastic Planet, in which the relationship between humans and other species is turned upside down, the artwork raises questions about the conditions of scientific research. Who can conduct research? Who becomes its subject? And who ultimately benefits from its outcomes? Within the maze, visitors become both observer and observed, researcher and research subject.
Through its playful use of scale, light, darkness, humour, and melancholy, artist Amanda Parer explores the relationship between the people and animals that make scientific discovery possible.
Nobel Prize Facts
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014 was divided, one half awarded to John O’Keefe, the other half jointly to May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser “for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain”.
NOBEL WEEK LIGHTS
5–13 December 2026 | 16:00–22:00
Stockholm City and Tensta
Amanda Parer
Parer explores the complex relationship between mankind and the natural world. Through large-scale installations that inspire wonder and curiosity, her work invites audiences to reflect on humanity’s impact on the environment.
Parer has been exploring environmental themes in her work since a 1995 trip to the Galapagos Islands, where she assisted on award winning natural history film documentaries.
Her artworks have been exhibited internationally and gained wide public recognition.
NOBEL WEEK LIGHTS
A light art festival inspired by the Nobel Prize
5–13 December 2026 | Free admission