The final outcome of the What would a microbe say? project was an exhibition that should have taken place April 29 – June 7, 2020 at the Ruth Davis Design Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The exhibition, exhibition-related lectures and a panel discussion were all cancelled due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
We chose not simply to postpone the exhibition; rather, we used its cancellation as a stimulus to re-think our privileged (global) movements. Therefore, we decided to develop a book recording our co-operation and this online version of the project to allow you to obtain a glimpse of our three-year artistic research project. We are thoroughly aware that neither a book nor an online exhibit can replace the experience of entering a space and feeling and tangibly experiencing an installation. However, we hope that this online version can provide you with inspiring text and images of where we intend to put What would a microbe say? into our current context and offer it to a broader international audience. In the book, we will invite guests from diverse professional fields to contribute their reflections, questions, comments and thoughts about (microbial) bodies in ongoing times. The book is planned for early 2021.