POROUS MATTER

POROUS MATTER is an interdisciplinary performance that investigates the permeability—the porosity—of the body and explores its relationship to organisms beyond the human: as an open web of relations, permeated by microbes, data, and resonances.

Over the past decades, many fields of research have developed a growing awareness of the interconnectedness and mutual dependence of biological organisms and systems. In this context, a new perspective on the human body has also emerged: like all ecosystems, our bodies are not closed entities but porous, constantly engaged in exchanges with their surroundings. What does this mean for how we imagine our bodies—and for our being-in-the-world? These questions have been explored by Anna Anderegg in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team of scientists and artists.

In POROUS MATTER, the body is approached as an archive inscribed with evolutionary memories, fossil traces, and microbiological histories. The body becomes a landscape—inhabited by microbes, fungi, and cellular colonies that shape our metabolism, our perception, and our existence. New technologies render these entanglements visible and tangible, reminding us that we are connected beings, that we are “nature.” Yet this also means that species extinction affects not only our external habitats but also the inhabitants within our own bodies—organisms on which our lives depend.

The performance further addresses the difficulty of reconciling these insights with lived reality—as members of a society that imagines humanity as separate from “nature” and positioned as its master. How do we navigate this involuntary complicity?

POROUS MATTER is part of Vorspiel, a citywide program before and during transmediale & CTM festivals.

TEAM
Artistic Direction: Anna Anderegg
Curation: Katharina Weikl, Art x Science Office, University of Zurich
Created and Performed by: Julia B. Laperrière, Lucia Gugerli, Selina Shida Hack, Waylon D’Mello
Dramaturgy: Nina Willimann
Scenography & Artistic Mediation: Szandra Tebbe
Sound Design: Marco Barotti
Costume Design: Antoniya Ivanova
Light Design & Technical Direction: Trécy Afonso
Video Editing: Milica Slacanin
Video Art: Rahul Sharma
Data Processing: Tanja Minarik
Video Documentation: Swan Park
Photography: Maria Theresa Forthaus
Distribution: Laurence Lang
Communication: Cécile Rey
Choreographic Assistance & Spoken Text: Laureline Richard
Textile Printing: House of U
Scenography Realization: Elie Peuvrel
Creative Engineering: Hémisphère
Metal Construction: Ferdi Hansen

RESEARCH PARTNERS
Prof. Debjani Bhattacharyya – Department of History, University of Zurich
Prof. Adrian Egli – Institute of Medical Microbiology, University of Zurich
Prof. Jan Fehr – Department of Public & Global Health
Prof. Helen Keller – Climate Justice, Faculty of Law, University of Zurich
Dr. Gaetana Restivo – Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Zurich
Dr. Claudia Röösli – Remote Sensing Laboratories, University of Zurich
Prof. Marcelo Sánchez – Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Zurich
Prof. Michael Scharl – Head of Gastroenterology, University Hospital Zurich
Dr. Maarten Schledorn – Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Zurich
Camille Schneiter – Department of History, University of Zurich
Prof. Marcel van der Heijden – Agroscope

PARTNERS
Bildstörung Festival, Detmold, DE
CCHAR, La Chaux-de-Fonds, CH
Hangar21, Detmold, DE
Kunsthaus Biel, Biel, CH
Naturkunden Museum, Berlin, DE
Tanzfabrik, Berlin, DE
Théâtre de Liège, Liège, BE
Uferstudios, Berlin, DE

WITH GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM
City of Biel
Canton of Bern
Ernst Göhner Foundation