Metaspore: Cosmopolitical Biopolitics and Multispecies Potentialities in Anicka Yi’s Ecoart
abstract
Anicka Yi’s exhibition Metaspores at Pirelli HangarBicocca showcased her bioart and ecoart pieces, using living organisms and AIs to explore symbiotic relationships in the world. The exhibition used the concept of spores and mycelium networks as a metaphor for art’s ability to inoculate and distribute collective intelligence. Yi’s ‘biopolitics of the senses’ aimed to overcome sensory bias, sculpting air with fragrances and reconfiguring what it means to be human in a cosmopolitical way. By portraying the pluriverse of microbes and machines, the exhibition challenged our perception of non-human and more-than-human entities in the world.
Keywords: Networks • Synesthesia • Eco-art • Speculative practices • Cosmopolitics • Biopolitics • Spores