Projects
Insectarium
Selma suffers from body numbness. There seem to be other humans who want to inhabit her mind and body.
To the outside, 26-year-old Selma is a cautious, inconspicuous person. But there is something out of the ordinary with the young insect researcher: Selma suffers from an unknown type of body numbness. According to her doctor, her numbness makes her vulnerable to a new form of disease. He suspects that there might be others who want to take over Selma’s body to use it for their own purposes. Selma is shocked and overwhelmed but she keeps her condition secret. While at first she stays silent out of fear, later on Selma hides her diagnosis to protect the others from the outside world. Since it turns out they are not threatening, but instead are very open and curious about Selma, especially about her work with insects. With their ability of metamorphosis, the little creatures seem to be key to the needs of Selma and the others: the merging of knowledge and sharing of bodies.
The starting point to this project dates back to a talk with a forensic entomologist. A field in which one tries to shed light on homicides by studying the insect’s population on a dead body. I was puzzled by this strange connection of humans and insects. And while I was investigating this relationship, I started to develop a thought that ever since kept lingering in the back of my mind: what if we, as human beings, could adapt insect-abilities like metamorphosis? What if we understood ourselves not only as individuals, but also as a part of a collective conscious and knowledge? Or in reference to Kafka’s Metamorphosis: what if Gregor Samsa discovers that he actually enjoys being a beetle? "Insectarium" evolves along the borderline of realism and fantastic thinking and explores the possibilities of being multiple in body and mind.
TFL PROGRAMME:
Discover more details here:
All the updates once a month in your mailbox, subscribe to the TFL newsletter.