The last stop was Vietnam. They positioned their installation in the Nha San art space, a very old, traditional stilt house, such as the one local people from the northern mountains have used for centuries. In two performances over a period of ten days, they created an artificial plant of plastic tubes within a matrix made of strings. In the artists’ own words: “We sucked yellow and red colours through the transparent tubes and let the GMO plant grow into the courtyard. GE/GMO is almost unknown to the public; therefore, we used another terminology and invited everybody for an art-science discussion dinner, where we cooked a Swiss-Vietnamese meal. Through the food, we were able to explain and discuss the topic on a specific, everyday basis. People liked how we crossed the line between artificial and natural and combined installation and performances, science and art, in Switzerland, Brazil and Vietnam.”
After the residency, they were engaged in the creation of a virtual Eden, where the artists implemented the simulation of a virtual “genetically modified organism”, a plant whose growth depended on public opinion in different countries. The project is still underway and people can fill in the online questionnaire and instantly receive their opinion on GE/GMO as an artistic picture of a mutant plant. The answers from the questionnaire are transformed into an artistic picture or “virtual plant”. In the end, they plan to create a virtual scene from the Garden of Eden, with animated plant growth of individual plants.
According to the artists, the experience was both satisfactory and enriching, as can be inferred from their own words: “We learnt a lot about science in different socio-political contexts. We understood that even scientists are humans! In the end, scientific results are rather subjective findings depending on deeper-rooted ideology and the motivation of each scientist. Through our work, we made so many contacts and even met new friends. Generally, we stated that the public is rather critical regarding the possible GMO risks. But the level of understanding and involvement differ very much between the three countries. With gene-technology, humankind designs new life. It was great having had the opportunity to examine the complexity of genetic engineering and to reflect on the manner in which society interacts with nature. We appreciated having had the unique possibility for freely experimenting inside and outside the lab in our two-person team.” According to the lab: “Our collaboration with Hina and Mätti was true to our original aim in that they indeed commented and interpreted science around the themes of risk and safety in gene technology, as they perceived it through interacting with scientists from all involved disciplines. In this way, the residency was a very valuable collaboration, and we, the scientists, learnt a great deal about the creative process of conceiving, 93