What holds the world together at its core? An alga as the beginning of life on earth, a fungus for the decomposition of radioactivity, a multi-resistant bacterial strain as an existential threat - living organisms are energy converters par excellence. They draw their energy from the environment and use it to build their cell structures. Everything we absorb from the environment is metabolized.

Constant change: we are metabolism Metabolism, or metabolism, becomes an expression of the question: what holds the world together at its core? In closely interwoven supply chains, the individual elements influence each other and are vital to our existence. If the processes are disrupted, this can lead to far-reaching, unpredictable changes that can even lead to the extinction of existence. What happens in the course of information processing in metabolic processes? How can failures of individual links and elements trigger far-reaching consequences such as epidemics and species extinction? How does a living organism avoid decay? Questions for contemporary art are derived from these fundamental processes. Metabolism can also be understood artistically as the transformation of ideas and matter to renew the world.

Material transformations occur naturally and on a daily basis in art The components of the “nutrients” supplied are metabolized - broken down, converted and transformed into new information or objects. Art becomes an artificial cell that releases energy in order to gain energy. Just as metabolism refers to entire cycles and cascades of chemical reactions, the works in the exhibition show artistic commentaries, interpretations and visualizations of existential rules, but also their susceptibility to disruption and unforeseeable derailments. Visitors to the exhibition will witness energy production and transformation processes in installation, video and sculpture.