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.
The bridge was officially opened by wethouder Rik Thijs, Pim Bens, Simon Dona, directer Internationale School Eindhoven Boris Prickartsen and the participating children from ISE. There were QR code stickers handed out which lead to the website that hosts all the collected bacteria, fungus and yeasts from Woensel west, International School Eindhoven and GGZe. The bridge is part of the ‘overbruggen’ project which came to be in collaboration with Gemeente Eindhoven, Vlakwerk and Pim Bens. For this bridge painting we want to thank the clients from van GGze, the kids and teachers from the Internationale School Eindhoven and the participants from Woensel West for donating their cultures to us.
To conclude: Dutch Design Week 2021 was an inspiring week. Filled with knowledge exchange, social projects and brilliant ideas for a better future. Thank you all for visiting, and we hope to see you sometime soon.