A selection of the projected images composed of the own made light-microscope recordings with the images taken by Dr. Volker Brinkmann, leader of the Core Facility Microscopy at the Planck Institute for infection Biology in Berlin and images acquired on a FEI Quanta 3D FEG at The Core facility for Integrated Microscopy, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. The latter images were captured by Michael Larsen and sample preparation was supervised by Klaus Qvortrup and Thomas Bjarnsholt. They show electron micrographs of a sample including bacteria and other microorganisms, collected from the travertine walls of the Colosseum, Rome. The images are evidence of immense bioactivity that ranges from remnants of long-dead bacteria to what appears to be very vigorous biofilms and living fungi. Samples were further processed in collaboration with the Department of Immunology and Microbiology, the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen.
Comment
Light and Life
High Light, Origin of Light, Vision, Looping Life, Transmission of Life, Life Flag, P.O.L. (Process of Life) –a cursory glimpse on the titles of her recent projects reveal clearly the central position of ‘light’ and ‘life’ in Sabine Kacunko’s art. Seen from this perspective, it is no surprise that her project INVINCIBLE had being granted UNESCO-patronage in the context of the International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies 2015. The underlying purpose of INVINCIBLE was to address concepts of sustainability, ecological structures and social models in calling attention to one of the most iconic World Cultural and Natural Heritage sites – the Amphitheatrum Novum, usually known as the Colosseum in Rome.
For cultural travellers, the Colosseum has always been a highlight and final destination of the Grand Tour. The artist has decided to dedicate this project as the starting point for her own global ‘Grand Tour’ related to the co-initiated international Big Bacteria-network that is supposed to pool a wide range of disciplines to address the proverbial diversity, variety, ubiquity and other well-known superlatives of bacteria. The intention which Sabine Kacunko pursued here, as in several previous projects, was to ‘re-convey’, or ‘re-mediate’ the visibility of chosen objects of special interest and initiate their ‘healing’ process. The largest amphitheatre in the world thus becomes by artistic purpose a model with strategic potential to boost and engender interdisciplinary cooperation – art history, archaeology, cultural and natural studies are only the most obvious disciplines to come to mind.
The Colosseum was illuminated with a huge live projection of its smallest inhabitants – bacteria – taken from and projected onto its outer surface. INVINCIBLE was not necessarily designed to provide a huge projection screen for power and ‘opium’ for the public, as so often has been the case in Colosseum’s history. The core purpose of the project is to offer an interdisciplinary discussion platform that connects art, science, humanities in the widest possible public domain. The intention which Sabine Kacunko followed in several previous projects was, as in this case, to direct attention to public sites with particular cultural, political and ecological backgrounds. In the age of diffuse globalization it becomes more and more important to illuminate individual surfaces and contents.
The most famous amphitheatre in the world and the symbol of the eternal city was therefore neither just used as a mere display for a political message nor is it exploited for any other purpose than to be highlighted itself as a model which may, or may not boost an envisioned interdisciplinary research.
What I especially wish to focus on is the parallel between health and heritage which Sabine Kacunko draws again and again. In case of INVINCIBLE, it was a homage to Girolamo Fracastoro (1478 or 1483–1553), Italian physician and humanist and a pioneer in bacteriology, clinical epidemiology and modern pathology, to whom she dedicated her project. He opposed the humoral miasma theory of disease, which was common in those days. His intense study of epidemic diseases led to his On Contagion and Contagious Diseases (1546), the first scientific statement of the true nature of contagion, infection, disease germs, and modes of disease transmission. It stated that each disease is caused by a different type of rapidly multiplying minute body, transmitted by direct contact, by carriers such as soiled clothing or through the air. Girolamo Fracastoro anticipated the existence of microbes and is thus celebrated as pioneer of modern microbiological research. However, Sabine Kacunko’s wish is not to confine art solely to its appellative function or celebratory occasions; her artistic aim is for collaboration between Sciences and Humanities to come more explicitly and concretely into play.
Invisible Metamorphosis
As the world-wide icon of cultural heritage, the Colosseum was illuminated by a huge light-installation projecting live the bacterial biofilm (patina) on its most exposed north-west side. This recently restored area measuring about 1,400 m2 carefully considers the lighting situations of the day and the season as well as the topography and traffic conditions. Together, they allowed a full-time lighting of the chosen spot that can be seen from Via dei Fori Imperiali all the way to Piazza Venezia. Samples of patina – the natural organic film – have been removed from the surface of the building and placed under a microscope. The connected projectors transmitted the images in real time, on the external surface of the object from which the patina has been removed. For a moment the ‘secret’ microcosm of the patina emerges from the darkness into the light. The metabolism of the micro-organisms produced substances of sediments – pigments – that create intense compositions of constantly changing and different lights and colours.
In this way the patina in the dark appears as what it really is: a colourful world of pigments arising from the sediments of the micro-organisms. The simultaneous multimedia presentation of microcosm and macrocosm created on the surfaces parallel worlds that usually remain hidden in daily life. The quintessence of INVINCIBLE was the celebration of life and its basic condition: transformation or metamorphosis. In this regard, Invincible takes one famous and one rather infamous work by the Roman poet Ovid as points of both departure and return: Remedia Amoris (Love’s Remedy or The Cure for Love), and the Metamorphosis. The illumination happened not only on a conceptual and visual level (illumination of a public building through live video projections) but also on that material by integrating and visualising the micro-organisms that provide the essential artistic instrument with a model of communication and social forms that are intelligent and capable to survive. The micro-organisms protect the monument from destruction caused by harmful environmental influences and thus secure the transmission of our cultural memory. Seen in this perspective, Invincible stands as an example of lasting global cooperation in the conservation of cultural assets and natural resources. It aimed to shed light on the processes of democratization, the concepts of sustainability as well as the ecological and economic structures, investigating the complex relation between man and nature and presented to the local audience – and to world via Internet – through the both media performance.
The colossal live-images of bacteria from the corresponding Colosseum’s surface are less visible while the path of the Sun faces the south side of the nearby Arch of Constantine. The visible bacteria-projection vanishes then for an instant (between 6 and 7 pm on September 17th 2015) due to the last sun rays, before reappearing in its full visual power just after the sunset. Due to the carefully considered content-related parameters, the virtual dialogue of the two major spots of the world heritage site plays a seminal role within the overall concept. Constantine’s adoption of the cult of SOL INVICTVS or the ‘invincible sun’ early in his career is highlighted on the medallion on the eastern side showing the Sun rising symbolized by the Helios as chariot (and corresponding to the Moon on the western side). Together with Constantine’s famous coin which bears the inscription SOLI INVICTO COMITI – ‘To the Invincible Sun my companion’ – and the famous inscription INSTINCTV DIVINITATIS on the Arch of Constantine itself, the invincible and invisible, the sensual and intelligible realms are addressed with a language and gestures of religious and cultural tolerance. At the same time, the both Victories covering the upper part of the central arch recall and prefigure both the Greek Nike and Christian Angels, thus cancelling the distinctions and providing a universal character to the complex which spans the Via Triumphalis between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill.
The extensive usage of spolia on the Arch of Constantine is likewise a reference to the cultural and natural cycles addressed by the bacteria as irreplaceable media of the recycling matter. Bacteria deserve this position first of all due to their metabolic diversity, enabling them to obtain carbon atoms and energy from practically everywhere on Earth. This diversity-based feature, seen by many as the true nature of bacteria, makes them to the real synonym of ubiquity. Being the oldest, smallest, most abundant and structurally simplest organisms, bacteria are diverse and varied, as well as vital for all other life forms. As living solar cells, bacteria are ‘messengers’ of life, regarded as ‘inventors’ of photosynthesis and therefore responsible for the transformation of sunlight into chemical energy. As such, bacteria must be treated not only as indispensable components, metaphors and models of knowledge, but increasingly as material, medium and methods for its acquiring as well. Sabine Kacunko’s corresponding understanding and artistic usage of bacteria have been exemplified in a larger number of public, site-specific and museum installations throughout the past fifteen years (ca. 2001-2015).
(Slavko Kacunko)
In a letter from 27th March of 2015, Irina Bokova, the Director-General of UNESCO (17. March 2015) confirmed “[…] the patronage of UNESCO for the […] activity entitled “lnvincible,” which seeks to highlight the key role of light in science and culture through a light installation, and that is scheduled to take place at the Coliseum in Rome […] As a valuable addition to the year-long celebration of the International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies (IYL2015), this event that will use innovative technology to reflect the light-conditioned origins and transformations of life at the culturally and historically important Coliseum certainly will contribute to raising awareness on the importance of light and optical technologies in daily lives. It is with pleasure, therefore, that I grant the patronage of UNESCO to this activity […].”
The project included a side event entitled ”Big Bacteria For Micro-Humans? Health & Heritage in Focus of Arts and Sciences” with presentations and a panel discussion at MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (15.09.2015, Via Nizza 138), organized by Claudio Crescentini. The panel discussion focused on important aspects of an integrated mode of health and heritage research. With Sabine Kacunko’s bacteria art in mind and with reference to the related Big Bacteria research network, the strategies for cooperation between the cultural and natural heritage and health issues were discussed. The panelists were: Arch. Maria Beatrice Andreucci (specialized in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design, Faculty of Architecture, Sapienza University, Rome), Professor Giovanni Antonini (Molecular Biology at the Department of Sciences, Roma Tre University), Dr Claudio Crescentini (responsible for exhibitions at MACRO), Professor Slavko Kacunko (Art History and Visual Culture at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies [IKK] at the University of Copenhagen and elected member of Academia Europaea), Dr Massimo Papi (head of the Task Force “Ulcer and vascular dermatology”, IDI-Rome), Sabine Kacunko (artist and founder of MICRO HUMAN NPO, Berlin).
Credits
The piece was untertaken as an interdisciplinary cultural project which included collaborative work and coordination with representatives of the arts, sciences and humanities as well as politics and business. Together with the support of the sponsors through all stages of preparation between 2013 and 2015, they helped this audacious project become reality and a media success.
Under the patronage of UNESCO general director Irina Bokova, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Rome and the City of Rome Department of Culture, INVINCIBLE was realized with the generous support of the following institutions: UNESCO Paris, Charité Berlin, University of Copenhagen, Zeiss Jena, Sigma Düsseldorf, Acea Rome, Code Alliance Berlin, Horn Imaging Aalen, Trollfilm Berlin and World Health Summit Berlin.
INVINCIBLE wouldn’t have been possible in this form without the support of many friends, colleagues and individual helpers, to whom Sabine Kacunko has a special debt: Sara Abou Said, Maria Beatrice Andreucci, Giovanni Antonini, Marco Antonini, Barbara Basile, Cornelia Bauer, Britta Beerwerth, Maria Grazia Bellisario, Thomas Bjarnsholt, Claudio Bocci, Giovanni Bonifacio, Volker Brinkmann, Matthew Burbidge, Dr. Tobias Busch, Joris Camelin, Luigi Carosio, Fabio Cesarini, Genesio Coccia, Cinzia Conti, Daniela Cozzi, Claudio Crescentini, Detlev Ganten, Volker Hassemer, Slavko Kacunko, Andreas Kipar, Luana Carina Knipfer, Michael Larsen, Debora Lepre, Thomas Leya, Paul Modler, Julia Neller, Martina Nibbeling-Wriessnig, Carola Norcia, Paolo Pierf, Oliver Poche, Stefano Porro, Svenja Prigge, Rosella Rea, Dagmar Ringel, Daria Rizzello, Leonardo Ruvolo, Maria Laura Santarelli, Roman Schäfer, Tatjana Schenke-Olivieri, Wilhelm Schmidt, Frank Schneider, Volker Schräger-Enkirch, Serena Spartano, Jens Streckert, Lidia Strube, Gudrun Strümpf, Felix Trolldenier, Antonia Weber, Dr. Michael Worbs, Anne Zdunek
