Performance, Exhibtion

In Microbial Governance, Iranian artist Mehrta Shirzadian develops a performance and installation consisting of two video projections and a standing object produced through a live ritual performance. One video work is based on the daily changes of the vaginal microbiome and visualizes cyclical shifts within this internal ecosystem. The second video projection presents internal bodily footage captured with an endoscopic camera, combined with visual material derived from real microbiome samples. During the performance, Shirzadian positions her body directly on the projected images, engaging with video, critical data, and ignored forms of embodied knowledge and material.

The ritual unfolds through slow, repetitive actions that address histories of scientific omission and the marginalization of intimate bodily processes. Rather than following external instruction, the performance is guided by microbial processes within the body, allowing the microbiome to shape rhythm, duration, and bodily response. After the performance, a standing object remains in the space alongside the projections as a trace of the ritual.

Mehrta Shirzadian (IRN) is a performance artist and artistic researcher working at the intersection of body-based practices, video, and biological systems. With a background in molecular biology, her work focuses on internal bodily processes and questions how neglected biological systems can be approached as active agents rather than passive objects of scientific observation, with an emphasis on embodiment and the influence of external forces on bodily experience.

 
Ort: k48 - Offensive für zeitgenössische Wahrnehmung
Projektraum Oliver Hangl
Kirchengasse 48/Lokal 2, 1070 Wien

Keine Tiere erlaubt/No pets allowed!

Unterstützt von: BMWKMS, Wien Kultur-MA7, Kultur Neubau

Dank an: cyberlab, Brillenmanufaktur