God's Spit

Ulrike Schmitz

23-28.7.2023

 

The focus of her research concentrates on biological phenomena and their production, perception and classification in science and society. She works with photography, moving images and organic matter and she is interested in how biology becomes scientific facts and social narratives.

During her stay she will work on a project about Haloferax volcanii (H.v.), a microorganism discovered by the microbiologist Benjamin Elazari Volcani in the Dead Sea during the 1930s. This single-celled organism can survive in extreme environments, and it could even survive on the planet Mars, but due to the drying of the Dead Sea even this extreme organism is at risk on earth. Her project will be realized in cooperation with Prof. Uri Gophna and his team from the Tel Aviv University and the Dead Sea Research Institute.

In addition to this ongoing project, Ulrike Schmitz will show a multimedia installation entitled God's Spit at the Grosso Modo gallery, in which she searches for the boundary and relationship between humans and fish. She deconstructed and dreamed with the Lumpfish - and fell in love with his/her skin. The project was realized in collaboration with the research institute for marine biotechnology BioPol in Skagaströnd, Iceland.

Ulrike Schmitz, a visual artist based in Berlin, has a Master of Arts from the Berlin University of the Arts, Institute Art in Context, with a focus on science-related image production. Her work has been shown internationally including at the Benaki Museum Athens, Centro Nacional de las Artes Mexico City, Centquatre-Paris, Historical Museum Sofia and Lishui Photography Museum, China. She was part of reGeneration3 of the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne and of PLAT(T)FORM at the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland. 
 

Viewing room

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