Polarities

While the Anthropocene is screaming for attention and some believe the post-Anthropocene is already at the gates, it becomes increasingly difficult to determine our position. We’re collectively sliding along a scale from denial and indifference to fear and mournful rebellion. How do we move from debilitating indecision to an inevitable intervention?

Polarities presents the three winning projects of the Bio Art & Design Award 2019, developed in collaboration with leading Dutch researchers in the life sciences. They are shown alongside recent works of international artists and designers whose course isn’t set by a compass of contradictions. Follow the call of the lost Kaua’i ‘?‘? bird, feel the shifting of the Earth’s magnetic field and contribute to the quest for female sperm. Change is inevitable, but don’t worry too much: we are all ecological anyhow.

Participating artists

Jonathan Ho & Joris Koene | Sex Shells (BAD AWARD 19)

Emma van der Leest, Aneta Schaap-Oziemlak, Paul Verweij & Sybren De Hoog | Fungkee | Fungal Supercoatings (BAD AWARD 19)

Michael Sedbon & Raoul Frese | CMD: Experiments in Bio-Algorithmic-Politics (BAD AWARD 19)

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Christina Agapakis (Ginkgo Bioworks) & Sissel Tolaas | Resurrecting the Sublime

Heather Dewey-Hagborg & Phillip Andrew Lewis | Spirit Molecule

Irene Stracuzzi | The Legal Status of Ice

Jakob Kudsk Steensen | Re-Animated

Lise Autogena & Joshua Portway |Kuannersuit / Kvanefjeld

Marjolijn Dijkman | Navigating Polarities

Minji Cho | (NON) Native

Charlotte Jarvis | In Posse

Mark IJzerman & Sébastien Robert | As Above, So Below

Curators

Angelique Spaninks & Xandra van der Eijk

In 2019, the BAD Award is made possible by a collaborative consortium of Noord-Brabant based cultural partners: BioArt Laboratories, MU Hybrid Art House and ZonMw.