s h i f t

March 2020, FAEN, Meta.Morf festival, Gallery KiT, Trondheim

November 2019, FAEN, Atelier Nord, Oslo

s h i f t is a place of encounter between microbes and people. Human guests are invited to sit down and have a sweet based on agar, while their microbial hosts chomp away on wither PCA or malt agar (bacteria prefers one, and fungi the other). On the opening day human guests were also invited to leave behind either hair, nails or spit in the microbial furniture, which mix with the microorganisms that already live in the gallery space.

s h i f t is Annike Flo in in partnership with the myriad of beings living in the spaces they occupy, and their guests.

s h i f t is inspired by the Human Microbiome Project which, among other discoveries, has revealed that microorganisms living within us play key parts in, and influence our immune system, our brain, and our genome, which all used to be biological explanations of the individual self. There is no clear line between us and other, you and your surroundings. How and where do we start to feel like a metaorganism? s h i f t plays with the idea of the historical salon as a place of meeting + discussion, but also as a non-sterile and fluid aesthetic that can facilitate human-microbe encounters. Away from a scientific or medical lens, s h i f t gives space to, nurtures and allows microorganisms to flourish where they already live, in this case, KiT’s gallery space, and on offerings donated by visitors.

s h i f t at Meta.Morf was made with assistance from many talented people. Thank you to the human guests who donated their microorganisms through hair, nails or spit, to Kine Fagerheim for the assistance, to Boris Kourtoukov for realtime timelapses of the microbial growth. Thank you to Nico Baceta for woodwork and Sarah Honeyman for firing the ceramics

Curated by Zane Cerpina