They don't have to be as alien as they seem. Arts and science, two very different disciplines, can be combined in an aesthetic, sometimes very unusual way. An aspect that has always been very important to the Jena Beutenberg Campus. For example, the main building of today's Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI), built in the 1950s, is adorned with a relief of a dragon slayer, symbolizing the fight against infectious diseases. And, of course, science itself can also be depicted in art. Following this tradition in a modern way, the Leibniz-HKI is working together with the ”Künstlerische Tatsachen” Arts & Science Residency.

The idea behind it: To bring science and arts together and develop a special exchange between the disciplines. In this way, researchers can gain new perspectives on their work and artists can expand their practice through scientific methods.

Repulsive intruder?

This year, five scientists from the Leibniz-HKI worked together with Eugénie Desmedt. The Viennese artist works at the interface between installation, media art and language art. We are therefore excited to see what emerged from her exchange with Myrto Katsipoulaki, Raghav Vij, Candela Fernández-Fernández, Beatriz Cristovão and Jakob Sprague. Our five scientists are studying the evolution and adaptation of pathogenic fungi such as Candida albicans, pathogenicity mechanisms, adaptation to the host and the immunology of fungal infections.

“The idea of yeast growing in our bodies is often accompanied by feelings of disgust or revulsion,” says Desmedt. “These feelings served as the starting point for my work during my stay at ”Künstlerische Tatsachen”. In collaboration with the scientists at Leibniz-HKI, my project revolved around the perception of hygiene, purity and cleanliness in relation to the human body. If we understand repulsion as a lack of clear boundaries of identification between the self and the other, could we for a moment see Candida albicans not as a vile invader of the human body, but rather as an organism for which the human body serves as a defective host?”

What her artistic response to these thoughts looks like will be revealed at the vernissage on Saturday, September 14 from 6 p.m. at TRAFO in Jena. The opening will be accompanied by a sound performance by artist Tim Shaw and an aerial acrobatics performance by artist Mary Maggic.