The Tallinn Architecture Biennial 2022 “Edible, or the Metabolism of Architecture” in cooperation with Kumu Documentary presents the film Spaceship Earth. It is the true, stranger-than-fiction, adventure of eight visionaries who in 1991 spent two years quarantined inside of a self-engineered replica of Earth’s ecosystem called Biosphere 2. The experiment received worldwide coverage, and chronicled daily existence in the face of a life-threatening ecological disaster and growing criticism that it was nothing more than a cult. The bizarre story is both a cautionary tale and a hopeful lesson of how a small group of dreamers can potentially reimagine a new world.

Spaceship Earth premiered in the US Documentary Competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was released by Neon. It was the first independent film released during the quarantine, with over 250 virtual cinema partners, drive-in film screenings and urban projections. The film was nominated for two Critics’ Choice awards and is now being distributed globally.

We thank the Eesti Arhitektuurikeskus and Tallinna Arhitektuuribiennaal. Introduction by a doctor of ecology, master of educational sciences, associate professor and senior researcher of sustainable development Mihkel Kangur.