BioTek’51 presents sculptures and installations on the theme of biotechnology in the gardens of the Bourgine Foundation (FB).
The gardens are lit by “black light” (UV around 395 nm), highlighting the fluorescent colours, which absorb UV rays and reflect them back into the visible range, making them appear very luminous.
For this exhibition, the FB curator, Sarah Bloementhal, invited a number of collectives and artists from different cultures and backgrounds to take part. In all, two collectives, an architectural firm, a couple of visual artists and 7 other artists responded to the call. Their work not only evokes the power of biotechnology and its hybridisation via transhumanism, but also explores its poetic, playful and aesthetic dimensions.
In the main hall, visitors are invited to discover the interior journey of French visual artist Jade Renard (b. 2022), developed during her residency at the Foundation. From her inner turmoil and her obsession with masks, her research led her to dismantle the benevolent lie constructed about the death of her brother Arthur. He didn’t die from respiratory insuffisance but committed suicide. The history of France and even of the world in the 1920s was also revealed to her, thanks in particular to historian Teresa Gallinck and documentalist Alice de Livremesle, consultants at the FB.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like a complete visitor’s guide to this exhibition.