This Dutch Design Week BioArt Laboratories opened its gates to the visitors once again. With a lot of enthusiasm we presented our 22 talents who came from all over the world to participate in ‘The Symbiocene Forest’. Their works and experiments which all are connected to living in symbiosis with nature, filled our big hall, curiousa room, lab space and outdoor area for 10 days.
We have already touched upon the topic of the symbiocene in the blogs on our website. Nevertheless these artworks make all those questions come to live. Experimenting with material waste, creating new products from know materials. But first and foremost creating awareness of the world around us. The overlooked beauty of materials. Our talents in one way or another all challenged our ideas and raised questions.
During the week we organised two fire pit debates. These open and interactive debates provided a place for the artists and visitors to discuss topics such as authorship, the difference between discovering and creating, but also touch upon the problems regarding regulations and policies and economic revenue model for biotechnology through patentability. Both fire pit debates were led by philosopher Dr. Laurens Landeweerd (Radboud Universiteit).
Not only our talents discussed symbiosis. The plants also had something to say on the topic. That is why visitors were able to get an audio tour from the unique trees in the BioArt Village. There is a call to action by Colonel Castanea Sativa and the unique perspective of Quercus Horizontalus.
We know plants have great powers. Not only providing us with oxygen but also function as food. There is one water plant we at BioArt Laboratories have been researching for a while: Azolla. On Saturday we had outdoor lectures explaining to our visitors everything about this small aquatic protein-rich fern, which is able to double its biomass in three days! Earlier this year we organized the B.I.C. cook off in which three chefs went head to head to create the best burger made of Azolla.
This year has not been quiet beside the debates and exhibition, we had something to celebrate during the Dutch Design Week. The official opening of the Collecting cultures x Overbruggen graffiti painting on the bridge. Connecting Vredeoord to the Achtseweg the tunnel/bridge was decorated with paintings of bacterial and fungi cultures. These cultures were collected earlier this year when residents of the van Edisonstraat, clients of GGZe and children from the International School Eindhoven became part of the Collecting Culture project. Wipping their hands, fingertips, elbows, noses, toes and cheeks on petri dishes, the bacteria and fungi from their body parts were grown on a nutrient medium in a warm incubator, photographed and turned into big graffiti artworks.
De brug werd officieel geopend door wethouder Rik Thijs, Pim Bens, Simon Dona, directeur Internationale School Eindhoven Boris Prickartsen en de deelnemende kinderen van ISE. Er zijn QR-codestickers uitgedeeld die leiden naar de website waar alle verzamelde bacteriën, schimmels en gisten van Woensel west, International School Eindhoven en GGZe staan. De brug maakt deel uit van het project ‘overbruggen’ dat tot stand is gekomen in samenwerking met Gemeente Eindhoven, Vlakwerk en Pim Bens. Voor dit brugschilderij willen we de klanten van van GGze, de kinderen en leraren van de Internationale School Eindhoven en de deelnemers uit Woensel West bedanken voor het doneren van hun culturen aan ons.
Ter afsluiting: Dutch Design Week 2021 was een inspirerende week. Gevuld met kennisuitwisseling, sociale projecten en briljante ideeën voor een betere toekomst. Iedereen bedankt voor uw bezoek, en we hopen u binnenkort weer te zien.