Text by CLOT Magazine
From November 4 to 10 at Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden Unbore collective, in collaboration with Beyond Human Festival and Leiden University, is presenting the exhibition Microbiome: Inside Out at Naturalis Biodiversity Center.
Featuring works by recent graduates from Central Saint Martins, Dia Munoz and Rosie Broadhead. Dia Munoz is an interdisciplinary artist and designer interested in the interaction of humans and technology in the near future. Munoz is fascinated by the ways in which technology shapes being human, with a special focus on health and biotechnology intersections. Apparel designer Rosie Broadhead specialises in biomaterials in the fashion industry. Her interests lie between the skin and interaction with clothing and how science and technology will influence the future of fashion.
Microbiome: Inside Out aims to imagine a future in which being human means being microbial. Our internal and external organs are a colourful landscape, swarming with bacteria, archaea, fungi, viruses and other microbes that communicate and collaborate to form and maintain the human body. But what kind of meaning does the ‘humanness’ acquire in this context? How much do we know ourselves? Are we really so distinctively human? Are some of the questions that the artists explore in this exhibition.
The exhibition will be a backdrop for the public forum on Microbiome that will take place on Thursday, November 7, from 13.00–14.00 in Naturalis Biodiversity Center, exploring the implications of the microbiome from three perspectives: artistic (Sonja Bäumel), philosophical (Dr Agnieszka Anna Wołodźko; Universiteit Leiden /Artez) and medical (Prof. Dr E. Kuijper, LUMC).
Unbore is a non-profit organisation based in the Netherlands that aims to foster new ideas and thinking, encourage experimentation, and promote projects which unite disciplines like art, technology, and biology. At its core, Unbore hopes to inspire collective devotion to present-day issues by facilitating multidisciplinary collaboration and building a cultural bio-art/design scheme.
