Musée national d’art moderne-Centre Pompidou, Paris, "La fabrique du
vivant" (February 20 to April 15, 2019)
LA FABRIQUE DU VIVANT
Designing the Living
20 FEBRUARY – 15 APRIL 2019
GALLERY 3, LEVEL 1
AS PART OF mutations / créations 3
From 20 February to 15 April 2019, in Gallery 4 at the
Centre Pompidou, La Fabrique du Vivant [Designing the
Living] retraces an archaeology of the living and of
artificial life.
This group exhibition offers a prospective presentation
of the recent work of some fifty designers, in addition
to research from scientific laboratories.
In the digital era, a new interaction is emerging
between creation and the fields of life science,
neuroscience and synthetic biology. The focus now lies
on matter itself. The notion of ‘living’
takes on a new form of artificiality, somewhere between
inertia and momentum. The
‘living’ spans the physical field of matter and the immateriality of
the digital world.
Biotechnologies are now a medium used by artists, designers or
architects. Digital simulation
tools now allow us to recreate the living.
Between biology and genetics, design takes a cross-disciplinary
approach, like a
biotechnological artefact where living matter dictates the form.
Design now turns to
‘bio-manufacturing’ and new ‘disruptive technologies’ around living
matter. Bio-materials,
made from organic life (fungus mycelium, laminar algae, bacteria and
yeasts, etc.) have led
to new sustainable, biodegradable objects.
To create an architectural sculpture in situ, specially designed for
the exhibition, American
artist David Benjamin (The Living) uses a new building method based
on fungus mycelium
bricks which grow together and are assembled by bio-welding.
Micro-organisms are
transformed into an architectural medium and building material.
Studying the behaviour of
life (animals or plants) leads to innovative architectural design
producing new forms of nature,
between the digital ecosystem and living systems.
Artists question the links between the living and the artificial, as
well as the processes of
artificial recreation of life; the manipulation of chemical
procedures on living matter; selfgenerating works with ever-changing
forms; hybrid works of organic matter and industrial
material, or the hybridisation of human and plant cells. In this era
of digital technologies,
artists draw on the world of biology, developing new social and
political environments based
on the issue of the living.
Some one hundred projects will be on show, including several created
especially for the
exhibition. The very matter of this exhibition is changing, as
certain works undergo a process
of growth or decay.
Ccurators
Marie-Ange Brayer, Curator, Head of the Design and Industrial
Prospective Department
Olivier Zeitoun, Conservation Manager, Design and Industrial
Prospective Department
Catalogue
A co-publishing hyx / Éditions du Centre Pompidou
Format 15 x 20,5 cm / Approximately 256 pages / Colours and B&W
/ quadri, paperback / 24 Euros
Under the direction of Marie-Ange Brayer, essays by Marie-Ange
Brayer, Olivier Zeitoun, Samuel Bianchini
and Emanuele Quinz, Spyros Papapetros and Carole Collet.
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