The Kunsthalle Mannheim's Studio opened 'Solarceptors' by the Latvian artist duo Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits on September 2, 2026 at 7 pm, curated by Julia Katharina Thiemann with curatorial support from Alessia Tardivo. The immersive exhibition, conceived with the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival as part of its 'Facing New Challenges' section for the festival's 75th anniversary under the motto 'Imagine Futures!', explores how flowering plants such as lupins perceive and respond to light. Using 3D scans of real plants and environmental data gathered in the artists' own experiments, Smite and Smits built a virtual, immersive environment of large-scale projections and VR works that invite visitors to experience the world from a plant's perspective - what the artists poetically term 'solaceptors', beings of light whose photosynthesis sustains all life.