„How would political responses to public problems change were we to take seriously the vitality of (nonhuman) bodies? By "vitality" I mean the capacity of things, edibles, commodities, storms, metals-not only to impede or block the will and designs of humans but also to act as quasi agents or forces with trajectories, propensities, or tendencies of their own. My aspiration is to articulate a vibrant materiality that runs alongside and inside humans to see how analyses of political events might change if we gave the force of things more due. How, for example, would patterns of consumption change if we faced not litter, rubbish, trash, or "the recycling." but an accumulating pile of lively and potentially dangerous matter? What difference would it make to public health if eating was understood as an encounter between various and
variegated bodies, some of them mine, most of them not, and none of which always gets the upper hand?”
variegated bodies, some of them mine, most of them not, and none of which always gets the upper hand?”
„Spinoza stands as a touchstone for me in this book, even thought he himself was not a materialist. I invoke his idea of conative bodies that strive to enhance their power of activity by forming alliances with other bodies (...)”
- Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things; Jane Bennett
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Project "Still Life" focuses on reimagination of still life genere as a vibrant space; a model of metabolic system in which materials, both natural and man made, are continuously transformed through the exploration of human relationship with materiality as well as human and non-human entanglements. Therefore, method of spontaneous fermentation is utilized as a main strategic tool in rethinking perishable subject matter characteristic of still life representations. Celebrating non-human creativity and unraveling its potential as a micropolitical act, spontaneous fermentation animates our perception of "inert" matter, (primarily food and objects) transforming it into a platform of omnipresent microbiotic activity which supports constant change and creation of symbiotic enviroments.
Furthermore, the desire to question the prevailing anthropocentic narrative and human exceptionalism paradigme is reflected in the processual nature of the work, where agency of materials as well as microorganisms are co-authors of the installation. From this human/non-human collaboration, destabilised space emerges - a space affirming fluidity and instability as a fertile ground for examination of human attitudes towards materiality and the other.
Interest for transformative processes and power of materials originates from the idea of constant production of material excess, natural to every living organism, an idea central to Bataille's theory of consumerism. As excess materiality and affluence are important aspect of still life paintings, project is also touching on the implications these aspects have in the context of ecology and politics.
Because of that, another important strategy in building the installation is the accumulation of discarded/excess of perishable goods - following the logic of accumulation, objects and materials demonstrate their 'thing power' by transforming and curating a working space, ultimately building an installation, a hub of human and non-human creativity.
