microBIOMÁtica is a journey of bodily and environmental storytelling, and a somatic and territorial exercise in the active memory of internal and surrounding microbiomes.

• Residency: Land of fires

The Land of Fires residency proposes to explore the latent imaginaries in the austral extreme of the American continent. An invitation to enter into a symbiosis with the communities of the South by creating connections with the human and more than human inhabitants.

• Project

Website: https://microbiomatica.net/es/home

How does a depleted and inflamed microbiota recover? Are there bacterial scars left by colonial trauma? How do ancestral practices address inflammation? How can we communicate with the ancestral microbes that live within us and in the environment? Can microbiota be given a voice? What are the specific characteristics of microbiota in the Global South? What is the scale of inflammation in the South?

microBIOMÁtica is a journey of bodily and environmental storytelling, and a somatic and territorial exercise in the active memory of internal and surrounding microbiomes. The project connects our microbial individuality with the biogeographical ecosystem and collective memory, adopting an open approach that listens to and nurtures our bodies by engaging with entities both within and beyond our bodily limits. It also seeks to weave a shared narrative that reconnects past, present, and future understandings of our environment.

The project yielded several outcomes: the development of a permanent infrastructure, the formation of a community around it, and the production of open-source documentation of the process.

First, a community-accessible biohacking laboratory was established by transforming a space within the LiquenLab facilities and equipping it with specialized tools and materials to support experimental and collaborative practices. This included the development of sampling and usage protocols, as well as training for individuals and groups in laboratory practices.

Around this space, a community emerged, bringing together scientists, members of local communities, and artists experimenting with somatic memory and the observation of microbiomes, particularly those of the gastrointestinal tract. A wide range of activities was developed to encourage observation, microbial sampling, reconnaissance mapping, analysis, and the archiving of bacteria.

Finally, a collection of materials -including books and fanzines- was produced and left as a resource for future use in the Lab, as part of the research process is also made accessible through the microBIOmática wiki.

• Artist

Kinkinella is a Chilean artist and researcher whose work engages with free technologies, post-porn practices, biohacking, collectivity, craftsmanship, and open culture and scientific-performative outreach. Their practice is consistently collective and material, informed by notions of territorial, social, and emotional uprooting. Recent work has focused on abdominal pain, chronic inflammation, and microbial damage to the gut, leading Kinkinella to examine self-management, microbial bioremediation and the necessity of redefining personal narratives.

They have fostered projects such as GYNEPUNK (2015), ANARCHAGLAM (2014) and PECHBLENDA (2012–2017), as well as festivals including Generatech (2007–2010) and Muestra Marrana (2010–2011). They have also led workshops, given lectures and performed in various institutions, festivals and independent spaces across different countries. 

• Host institution

Liquenlab is a space for critical and contextual reflection focused on the territories and maritoriums that characterise the sub-Antarctic region. They promote a symbiotic perspective of existence, encouraging collaboration between different collectives of species and passions. This knowledge laboratory becomes a place to experiment with different ‘cultural techniques’ that enrich the scientific vision, integrating a more sensitive understanding of the territory, its ecosystems and the social occupation that takes place in them.

Located in the extreme south of Abya Yala, in the city of Punta Arenas, Liquenlab is linked to a diverse ecosystem that includes Mapuche Huichilla women, Selknam women, a group of blind people and conservation organisations. These communities are located in different parts of the territory/maritorium, allowing for a rich interaction between virgin forests, fjords, glaciers and pampas.

• Translocal expert

The trans-local experts are profiles that support artists during the residency, supplying relevant expert know-how and anchoring the projects firmly within the relevant regional context, demography and history, in particular in regards to the Buen Vivir and Lo-TEK philosophies. 

In this residency, the trans-local expert is Lucía Egaña Rojas, who works as an artist, curator, writer, independent researcher, and educator. She is interested in collaborative projects that question the construction of social imaginaries and the sources of knowledge. She claims to be drawn to an art that overflows its own discipline, permeating fields such as technology, pedagogy, sexuality, activism, writing, and ecology.

• Credits

Artist: Kinkinella

Twin: LiquenLab (Chile) https://liquenlab.cl/ 

Liaison mediator: Silvia Zayas

Partner: HacTe – Barcelona Hub of Art, Science and Technology (Spain) https://www.hactebcn.org/ 

Trans-local expert: Lucía Egaña

This project is realized by Kinkinella in the framework of S+T+ARTS Buen-TEK, co-funded by the European Union under the S+T+ARTS initiative of DG CNECT (GA LC- 03568052), and implemented during the residency “Land of fires ”, together with LiquenLab and HacTe.