OMNYA JERYO

RANIA SAMAHA

MARIE-CLAIRE HARNASCH

RICK CHANG

JONAS KLASEN

CAMERON HOLLY

MARIE DECKER-HOFFMANN

VEERA LAAKSONEN

JULIA SKIPPARI

PINJA ANTIKAINEN

Water and the sustainable body is galerie PLUTO’s collaborative exhibition with artists from Professor Jörg Obergfell’s Trier University of Applied Sciences Art and Nature course. The work in the exhibition is a response to research compiled by Texas A&M University bioscience students taught by galerie PLUTO Director, Dr. Jeremy Wasser. Research by doctoral candidates, Marina Mayer and Nikola Makdissi, from the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Elvira Mass from the LIMES Institute of the University of Bonn.

Barbara Benish’s microplastics and nanoplastics artwork (completed during her 2022 galerie PLUTO residency) was an additional source of inspiration for the artists. The exhibition commenced with a Vernissage on July 12, 2022 at Trier University.

Water

Works in the Water series are individual artists’ responses to the theme of water. Group meditations and experiences surrounding the theme further inspired the work. The artists engaged in visualizations, wrote poetry about the Rhine River, explored the science of water, and practiced the Qigong Five Elements Moving Meditation.

the sustainable body

the sustainable body series includes drawings and an interactive video performance as a collaborative installation project. The entire project considered the Rhine River, microplastics and water as an element of health. Students from Professor Jörg Obergfell's Art and Nature course at Trier University of Applied Sciences met for five weeks with artist Jane Brucker and biomedical scientist Dr. Jeremy Wasser, both from the USA. Student artists and designers met to explore water as an essential aspect of the human experience of nature and to examine the relationship of water to human health.

The artists and designers met with the Texas A&M University Biomedical Sciences Program. The A&M participants, who were studying under galerie PLUTO Director, Dr. Jeremy Wasser, at the time, engaged with PLUTO artist-in-residence, Barbara Benish, and doctoral candidates Marina Mayer and Nikola Makdissi from the laboratory of Professor Dr. Elvira Mass, developmental biologist at the LIMES Institute of the University of Bonn and member of the Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation.

The collaboration included seven groups, each focused on the impact of microplastics and nanoplastics on a organ/body system (endocrine, cardiovascular, nervous system, renal, reproductive, gastrointestinal, and biochemical). Each biological system group created drawings from their shared research, which considered fast fashion and garment water pollution as the primary source of microplastic and nanoplastic intake. The artists and designers communicated the research through the works they created for the exhibition.