Arabidopsis Thaliana intertwines variety of narrative registers: science-fiction and rhetoric reminiscent of the Cold War, experiential and speculative, to question the limits and the excesses of the visions of the scientific world, which can be premonitory of cosmic or ecological catastrophes.

 

In the late 1970s, a group of Lithuanian scientists—at that time under Soviet rule—started experimenting with plants and their ability to grow in microgravity conditions. Their work culminated in 1982 when a specimen plant of the ‘Arabidopsis Thaliana’ was grown in outer space. This unprecedented event was a turning point for thinking about the possibilities of life beyond Earth and inaugurated a new area in scientific exploration, currently referred to as ‘astrobotany.’

 

The Arabidopsis Thaliana is a model specimen in botany whose genome is currently fully referenced. It can grow in sidewalk cracks as a self-pollinated weed and can quickly adapt to changing environments. An Arabidopsis Thaliana is growing beside MAMBO's entrance on the Carrera Sexta, and its growth cycle is streamed in the exhibition space.

 

Starting from archival research, Arabidopsis Thaliana is an audiovisual installation that offers a reinterpretation of that specific moment in planetary history when the ecosystem had the possibility of expanding beyond the Earth. The work draws inspiration from a Colombian radio program, imagined in 1982, that flirts with the colonial and space exploration tropes while hinting at geopolitical implications. It also speculates on the side effects of the overspill of terrestrial life in outer space.

 

By revisiting a specific moment in history and connecting it to the present, Arabidopsis Thaliana unfolds multiple narratives while warning how science-fiction can seem more real than reality.

 

 

Eugenio Viola

Chief curator

MAMBO

BIOGRAPHIES

 

Santiago Reyes Villaveces is a colombian artist who works between Bogotá and Ambalema. In 2015, he won the Abraaj Royal College of Art Innovation Scholarship 2015-2017. Reyes has a master in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art of London and a bachelor's degree in Visual Arts and History and in Arts Theory from the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota.  His practice centers on mineral stories.

 

Ilona Jurkonytė is a curator, investigator and educator of films and images in movement born in Lithuania; she currently lives in Montreal, Canada. She was awarded as Vanier Scholar in Concordia University, where she is taking a doctorate in the Cinema and Image Movement Program. Besides her curation and academic engagements, Ilona collaborates on single and multiple screen audiovisual works. When not looking at screens, Ilona is dedicated to researching plants and fermenting ancient Baltic rye bread.