Wombs

In the installation, a custom-made extra-bodily organ hosts two cell cultures in a hybrid ecosystem: The vaginal epithelial cells of Margherita Pevere and slug egg cells. They share a growth medium and communicate chemically through it. Wombs is a dance of two organisms at a cellular level. The two cell types display a radically different behaviour: the human cells divide, and small fragments of extra-bodily tissue become visible to the naked eye. Slug cells, instead, do not divide. They are alive but remain suspended. The growth medium is infused with human sex hormones which affect the primordial biochemical communication between cells.

Wombs investigates the cisgender female body as a biochemical cyborg: hormonal contraceptives modulate human sexual organs to prevent pregnancy, thus accompanying the sexuality of women. Moreover, they inscribe the individual experience into a biopolitical sphere, as they may trigger the endocrine system of other organisms on release into the ecosystem through urine.

This work was realised within the framework of the European Media Art Platforms (EMAP) programme at KONTEJNER (HR) with support of the Creative Europe Culture Programme of the European Union.