ART X SCIENCES TALK | UZH: "POROUS MATTER"

ZAW X UZH

ART X SCIENCES TALK | UZH: "POROUS MATTER"

What if we were to understand the body not as a closed organism, but as an open network of relations?

POROUS MATTER is an interdisciplinary performance that explores the permeability – the porosity – of the body and its relationship to organisms beyond the human.

Developed by Anna Anderegg in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team of scientists and artists, POROUS MATTER conceives of the body as a living community inhabited by microbes, fungi, and cell colonies that shape our metabolism, our perception, and our very being. The body is approached as an archive in which evolutionary memories, fossil traces, and microbiological stories are inscribed.

The performance unfolds at the intersection of physical and virtual worlds. Through the interplay of video, mirrors, and sound textures, the performers’ bodies merge with digital structures, multiply, fragment, and oscillate between solid and fluid states.Through the combination of movement, sound, and image, an immersive space emerges – transforming like a living membrane: layered, breathing, and in constant transformation.

POROUS MATTER is a body of work existing in two formats: PARTICLE, a 30-minute excerpt for two performers, and SWARM, the full-length version for five dancers. At Zurich Art Weekend, PARTICLE is presented, a moving performance through the Löwenbräu Areal. Simply join at the meeting point (corridor outside schwarzescafé / LUMA Westbau).

Description

This conversation brings together Prof. Dr. Adrian Egli, Director of the Institute of Medical Microbiology at the University of Zurich, and artist Anna Anderegg, moderated by Dr. Katharina Weikl, Head of the Art x Science Office at UZH. Opening with a short keynote by Adrian Egli, the panel will explore how both science and art are reshaping our understanding of the body – not as a closed, autonomous individual, but as a porous and interconnected ecosystem.
Drawing on Egli’s research into microbes and the microbiome, and Anderegg’s interdisciplinary performance POROUS MATTER, the discussion will consider how bacteria, fungi, and other life forms continuously shape human existence. Together, the speakers will reflect on what it means to think beyond the human body as separate from its environment, and instead as part of a wider network of species, materials, and planetary relations. The conversation invites audiences to imagine new perspectives on health, identity, and coexistence in a more-than-human world.

Meet the panelists and moderator

Prof. Adrian Egli is Director of the Institute of Medical Microbiology at the University of Zurich and a research group leader at the University of Basel. His work focuses on the hidden world of microbes – the bacteria, fungi, and viruses that can both sustain and threaten human life. Using genome sequencing, artificial intelligence, and other advanced technologies, he and his team develop faster ways to detect dangerous infections and antibiotic resistance. He is also leading international initiatives such as the Swiss Pathogen Surveillance Platform and the Microbiota Vault, a project dedicated to preserving the diversity of the human gut microbiome for future generations.

Anna Anderegg is a Swiss performance artist. She studied dance in Bern, Montpellier and Berlin. Her practice is built on the dialogue between the human body and its environment. Her work has been shown in various cities in Europe, Asia and the US. In 2018, Anderegg created the commissioned work FRAGMENTED for the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow designed by Rem Koolhaas. Between 2017 and 2019, Anderegg taught as a guest lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland Basel’s Institute of Aesthetic Practice and Theory. In 2023 Anderegg presented her solo HopeMe during the FRIEZE artfair at the Songeun Museum, the first architecture built by Herzog & De Meuron in Korea.

Dr. Katharina Weikl works at the intersection of art, science and society and holds a Ph.D. in the history of science from the HU Berlin. She is the head of Art x Science Office at the University of Zurich, where she works with scientists from all disciplines and creates collaborations with a wide range of artistic fields. Notable exhibitions she has curated in Switzerland include «Planet Digital» at the Museum für Gestaltung, «100 Ways of Thinking» at Kunsthalle Zürich, and «Transactions» at Manifesta 11 in 2016. Internationally, her work is shown at the Mun Gallery at the DDP in Seoul, South Korea, as well as the Science Gallery, Bengaluru, India.

______

Initiated in 2018, the Zurich Art Weekend Art + Science Talks seek to generate unconventional exchanges between creative thinkers who are active at the highest level of excellence in the arts, humanities, the natural sciences, and public life. Organised on the occasion of ZURICH ART WEEKEND June program and kindly hosted by schwarzescafé / Luma Westbau, we delve into the current conversations celebrating the vastness of interdisciplinary work by leading artists, curators, writers, academics, scientists, and researchers who bridge the gap between these fields. We encourage “out of the box” discussions, shared perspectives, and lively debate.

These Art + Science Talks, moderated by a journalist, curator, or academic, pair internationally acclaimed contemporary artists with leading figures from other fields. They aim to tease out crossovers in research of supposedly opposing disciplines.

All talks are free and open to the public, with RSVP recommended.

Events will take place at schwarzescafé / Luma Westbau, Löwenbräukunst, Limmatstrasse 270, 8005 Zurich.