4 DAYS of BIO ART & DESIGN - PERFORMANCES, TALKS & WORKSHOPS

Are you an adventurous sci-fi fan, always looking out for ufo's and the latest extraterrestrial blockbuster? Are you then also prepared to completely turn your perspective around and get closer to your inner aliens for once? If yes, then come to MU on Thursday March 7 and join in an Evening of Close Encounters together with Hung Lu Chan.

For centuries, humans have been perceiving other worlds by imagining aliens, from ghosts, zombies and mermaids to monopods, Martians and other extraterrestrial beings. Gradually, these absurd creatures and science fiction entities have gained an impact on our sociopolitical perceptions of otherness.

But our imagination of aliens is largely based on projecting our own biases, emotions, and desires into the unknown. In other words, aliens begin within us. And even though the advancement of technology has disenchanted many imagined figures and narratives, our inner aliens have never ceased but evolved along with human nature.

So why not turn the perspective around, and for once not look at the universe searching for the unknown, but investigate our internal aliens through a special mix of guided meditation, AI neural networks and cognitive neuroscience ?

With their BAD Award-winning project Close Encounters with Inner Aliens Taiwanese social designer Hung Lu Chan and neuroscientists Floris de Lange, Floortje Bouwkamp and Matthias Ekman of Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour delve into the theme of inner alien encounters, utilizing fMRI and AI to analyze and explore our internal visual imagery of otherworldly realms.

19.30 Doors open
20.00 Introduction and Inner Aliens-workshop by Hung Lu Chan
21.00 Screening of sci-fi classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind
22.15 Recap and drinks
23.00 End of the evening

Free admission through our Eventbrite

When Karel van Laere attended a six-hour surgery in a hospital, he saw surgeons using very precise laparoscopic instruments. In the heat of the moment, they made vital decisions hanging above the body, talking as they determined how much flesh to cut away. This improvisation continued to haunt the artist until he found a way to integrate it into a work. For this, he interviewed professionals about improvisation. Besides surgeons, he also spoke to a professional dancer, a police-man and a jazz pianist, to find out what role improvisation plays in their work. This resulted in the multimedia sound installation and performance Reach, in which a team of performers work live with laparoscopic instruments as if they are 'improvisational surgeons' to make excerpts from the interviews audible.

This evening they will perform twice at 20.15 and at 21.30.

Inbetween these two performances designer Pete Fung will invite all present to co-write future scenario's with him as part of the installation Orders of the Undead. You survived, what now? that he developed together with former BAD Award 2020 winners Nadine Botha and Henry de Vries.

Because even though the corona-pandemic is officially over, the virus is still making the rounds, as are all the stigmas and prejudices about the undead associated with infections. And it is important that we keep talking about it and process our collective trauma together. So why not let 'zombies' help us mythologize the lessons we have learned and the dance with viruses we have developed in a blockbusterstyle writingroom where we start making scripts together and imagine what happens after The End, when the screen goes black, the credits roll and the somber music plays?

Free admission through our Eventbrite

If you find a speculum erotic this is the lab for you.
If you have learned about the anatomy of a vagina through sex this is the lab for you.
If you find no affinity between vaginal exploration and pleasure, then this is the workshop for you.
You are invited to Sx-Pleasuration's witchy, biopunk workshop where you will wet your hands with crazy self-made lubricants, explore vulvas and cervixes, and imagine scenarios of self-exploration and pleasure.

Divided in two parts you first enter a DIY biology kitchen to explore lubrication and self-production of lubricants. From the use of flax seeds and medicinal plant infusions to algae for the creation of lubricating and edible capsules. Alma de Bruixes will tell you everything they have learned about the world of lubrication and you will go home with your very own lubricant.

In the second part the speculum is the center piece. You can look at the vulva and dig deep into the vagina to de-medicalise the body and build autonomy practices. Lastly, a small space fis dedicated to chat and discussion starting with the sharing of videos and erotic objects that inspire the project.

· The workshop is a separate space for stigmatised and oppressed bodies, by gynaecological and medical knowledge.

· During the workshop, vulvas and vaginas will be exposed with the help of the speculum and participants can choose whether to observe only, expose themselves publicly or in privacy. It is recommended to bring a yoga mat, a towel and sterilised glass jars (to take your lubricants home).

· The workshop is part of the audio-visual project Sx-pleasuration, which aims through a mix of pornographic performance and documentary material to explore gynaecological violence and the possibility of imagining scenarios of self-exploration and pleasure. For this, audio-visual material will be collected during the workshop, with the consent and protection of the participants.

The workshop is presented by Alma de Bruixes, a nomadic collective of biohacking witches who see little difference between a speculum and a sex toy. Weaving like a spell biomaterials, DIY biology, gynaecology and lubricants for the pleasure of self-exploration. Alma de Bruixes - was born from the union of ALMA Futura, which studies and develops tools for radical change in vaginal and gender health, and Bruixes-Lab, a nomadic laboratory of biohacking, sextech and witchcraft rituals.

The collective is currently working on the development of an audio-visual work that uses the speculum as a pretext to investigate the rebellious act of tearing it out of the hands of doctors and inserting it into ourselves, to imagine alternative forms of care, knowledge, pleasure. The starting point is in fact the violence from which gynaecology was born: racist, bourgeois and misogynist. But the point of arrival is pleasure as an anti-colonial, anti-patriarchal and anti-capitalist claim.

Admission fee is 5 euro and you can reserve a spot through our Eventbrite link

Sunday March 10
An afternoon of re-c(O)unting with live performance by ella hebendanz and pamela varela

The live performance of re-c(O)unting: self-exploring bodies, stories, laboratories, was one of the highlights of this year Bio Art and Design exhibition Plotting Patterns and Portals. This BAD Award 2023 winning project by pamela varela and ella hebendanz in collaboration with Joris Koene took full attention of a wide audience at it's premiere in december and will be preformed one more time on Sunday afternoon March 10 at MU Hybrid Art House starting at 15:00. Entrance is included in the exhibition ticket so don't miss it!

“re-c(O)unting: self-exploring bodies, stories, laboratories” is both a radical essay film that exists within an extended-film installation and a reenacted body-based live performance. In the lecture performance the two artists are live mixing excerpts of the film with spoken word, live camera footage from a microscope and an endoscopic camera, and interactions with organic matter on stage. The visual results are being projected on a screen and are accompanied by Concepcion Huerta who produces the soundscape live.

Free admission through our Eventbrite