An unusual visual treat

Artist Simona Koch, bangaloREsident@NCBS, will be showcasing, ‘Superorganism #1 Bengaluru: Multimedia Showcase’ on  August 13, from 2 pm to 7 pm. The venue is National Centre for Biological Sciences, GKVK Campus, Bellary Road.

   Simona has knit her work around the concept of superorganism dating back to 1851, when Herbert Spencer described society as a social-organism with organs, processes of growth and disappearance.

Later, biologist William Morton Wheeler created the term ‘superorganism’ in 1910 in relation to his work involving ants. Since then, the idea has been refined in various directions.

 Based on this topic, the artist has created a multimedia project: A video installation shows a small cell starting to grow and with increasing pace develops into a humongous organism that is in constant movement.

To this end, Simona animated city maps from six different moments of Bangalore's history with pencil drawings.

Inspired by conversations with scientists at NCBS, she produced an accompanying text which transforms biological phenomena to the superorganism Bangalore and describes it accordingly.

Additionally, a series of drawings and collages which emerged on the pages of scientific books about biology and geology and, thus in a sensuous manner, address the materials of which the superorganism consists, will be on display.

A web of strings illu­strating the evolution of the organism is also part of the installation.
Entry is free. For details, call 25205305/6 or visit website: www.goet­he.de/­bangalore; facebook.­com­/goetheinstitut.bangalore.