Here come the BAD Award winners of 2024!
Unveiling the Power of Nature
The Bio Art & Design (BAD) Award is a prestigious international competition inviting emerging designers and artists to collaborate with renowned Dutch researchers to create new multidisciplinary works. These projects span various fields, from sustainability and biotechnology to ethics and new materials. The BAD Award highlights the power of interdisciplinary collaboration to drive fundamental change and innovation.
Timely and urgent, lively and sensitive are keywords that connect the three bio art and design projects that each won a BAD Award 2024. Each team of artist(s) and scientist(s) are getting a budget of 25.000 Euro provided by the BAD Award consortium partners MU, Bio Art Lab, Dutch Design Foundation and Next Nature to make their proposal come alive in the upcoming six months. After this pressure cooker process the results will première at MU Hybrid Art House in Eindhoven with the opening of the yearly bio art & design exhibition that is scheduled for Friday December 13, 2024. The winning projects of this year are as diverse as they are intriguing.
The Myth Of Bomb Craters - Moe Abbas & Liu Shuai
Poetic and brave is The Myth of Bomb Craters by Chinese artist Liu Shuai and Moe Abbas of Utrecht University's Plant Stress Resilience/Environmental Biology research group. 'A unique work engaging with the war-torn time we are in by planting seeds of hope for the future', according to the jury. 'It shows how nature can heal itself for the common good of all beings. It is a work spanning geographies as well as artistic forms - activism, land art, conceptual art and design to poetic, practical and powerful effect - whilst being fully engaged with the science of bioremediation through plants.'
A unique work engaging with the war-torn time we are in by planting seeds of hope for the future
The Myth of Bomb Craters transforms sites of destruction into symbols of regeneration and hope. By exploring bioremediation through plants in war-torn areas, this project presents a poetic yet practical approach to healing landscapes scarred by conflict. The jury was particularly moved by the project's bold and urgent message, highlighting the potential for nature to restore balance and foster resilience in the aftermath of devastation.
Ecotonal Beings - NVISBLE.STUDIO/Emilia Tapprest, Sophie Mars, Victor Evink, Samar Khan & Leonie Cornips
With their proposal Ecotonal Beings, Finnish-French filmmaker Emilia Tapprest (NVISIBLE.STUDIO), together with Sophie Mars and Victor Evink, connect with all senses to animal language in collaboration with PhD-researcher Samar Khan and linguist Leonie Cornips of NL-Lab/Meertens Instituut (KNAW) and Maastricht University. Their winning project 'touches the deep-felt sentiment of humans to interact with other species and understand the core of being that other by being able to communicate with them', says the jury. 'This then would help to not only get better understanding, but also improve relations and getting a more in-depth view of the (daily, environmental) needs.'
It touches the deep felt sentiment of humans to interact with other species
Ecotonal Beings seeks to bridge the gap between humans and other species through speculative interfaces that enhance embodied communication. This ambitious project aims to develop new ways of interacting with different species, focusing on movement, haptics, sound, and vision. The jury is eager to see how this project will expand our understanding of non-human experiences and foster deeper, more empathetic connections with the natural world.
Low Tide Ceramics - Carla Alacalà Badias & Laura Villanueva
Low Tide Ceramics - Carla Alacalà Badias & Laura Villanueva
By bringing a first small ceramic but already working prototype of a sonic Microbial Prophetesses sculpture, Spanish designer Carla Alacalà Badias and marine microbiologist Laura Villanueva of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), convinced the jury on a tactile as well as conceptual level. 'Through projects like this we can learn a lot more about storytelling from the microbes and their lifeworld. Combining sculpture with sonification and being both a site-specific piece as well as a gallery piece, the project may even go on to have scientific impact on the study of bacteria', says the jury.
Through projects like these we can learn a lot more about storytelling from the microbes and their lifeworld
With Microbial Prophetesses, the duo delves into the microscopic world, revealing the essential yet often overlooked labor of microbes. Their work underscores how these tiny organisms sustain life and how humans exploit their functions for capitalist gains. This project illuminates the vital, hidden activities of microbes, advocating for greater recognition and respect for these unseen contributors to our ecosystem.
'Seeing contemporary bio-art proposals that understand their historical grounding –whether through art history, the roles of rituals or ancestral practices, and the legacies of colonialism and war – is heartening as it manifests important connections across time and space necessary to repairing the damaged aspects of our world.'
The jury was pleased to see how many of the proposals of the twelve contesting teams for this year's BAD Awards made connections between contemporary concerns and historical practices or forms of representation. 'Seeing contemporary bio art proposals that understand their historical grounding –whether through art history, the roles of rituals or ancestral practices, and the legacies of colonialism and war – is heartening as it manifests important connections across time and space necessary to repairing the damaged aspects of our world.'
This year's BAD Award jury consisted of Gerda Bosman editor in chief of Science at NTR; curator, author and initiator of Arts at CERN Ariane Koek; cancer and CRISPR researcher and former BAD Award winning scientist Rodrigo Leite de Oliveira; artist, educator, xenologist and founder of tranxxeno lab Adriana Knouf; and artist and former BAD Award winner Sissel Marie Tonn.
The three BAD Award winners, each receiving €25,000, will bring their joint proposals to life, culminating in a showcase on December 13, 2024, at MU Hybrid Art House in Eindhoven.
The BAD Award is supported by a consortium of cultural partners, including BioArt Laboratories, Dutch Design Foundation, MU Hybrid Art House, and Next Nature.