Exhibition room with white walls, placed in it, hanging and on the wall: 40,000-fold magnification of an amoeba

Exhibition space photographed frontally, separated by a gray curtain. Placed behind it, hanging and on the wall: 40,000-fold magnification of an amoeba

Exhibition space with installation: 40,000-fold magnification of an amoeba

Sonja Bäumel

Entangled Relations—Animated Bodies

Official Austrian contribution to the 23rd Triennale di Milano International Exhibition 2022

1.2.2023—30.4.2023

MAK Forum

The performed and multisensory installation by the artist Sonja Bäumel aims to stimulate the cultural imagination via the potential of microorganisms. It seeks to alter our perception of the boundaries of the human body and explores what the microbial paradigm shift may mean for cross-beings boundaries. Exploring the vital relationships, bonds, and interconnections between our bodies and the microbes that cohabit them, it invites visitors to wonder, observe, and understand what it might mean to embody the human in a more-than-human world.

Magnified 40,000 times, a larger-than-life sculpture of an amoeba expands in multiple directions, linking piece by piece with the transparent fragments of a human figure riddled with microbial inclusions. The dynamic projection of a real amoeba overlays the installation and is accompanied by sound transmitting the bubbling vitals of the microbial world. The installation will be brought to life by choreographer and performer Doris Uhlich on several occasions.

By unfolding, shifting, and fragmenting the so-called boundaries of the human bodies, the installation exposes the entanglement and constant exchange with the microbial milieus living on, in, and around it, revealing yet unknown forms of movement, intelligence, and communication.

Booklet

Download Booklet
Download Booklet (italian)

Sculpture: detail view of 40,000-fold magnification of an amoeba

Performer Doris Uhlich stands within the installation of a 40,000-fold magnification of an amoeba

Commissioner

Lilli Hollein, General Director and Artistic Director, MAK

Curator

Marlies Wirth, Curator Digital Culture and Design Collection, MAK

Artistic concept and realization

Sonja Bäumel

Funding and Governing Body

Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport

Artistic Partners

University of Applied Arts, Vienna: Science Visualization Lab and Studio Book and Paper

Scientific Partners

ISTA – Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Sixt-Group

Kindly supported by

Dynamic Projection Institute, your partner for innovative dynamic projections, Made in Austria

Media

<BODY>MAK Exhibition View, 2023, ENTANGLED RELATIONS—ANIMATED BODIES, Austria’s entry to the 23rd Triennale Milano International Exhibition 2022 by the artist Sonja Bäumel © kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK</BODY>

MAK Exhibition View, 2023, ENTANGLED RELATIONS—ANIMATED BODIES, Austria’s entry to the 23rd Triennale Milano International Exhibition 2022 by the artist Sonja Bäumel © kunst-dokumentation.com/MAK