“Settlers”
Little moulds I locked in space
Gave them names, gave them place
You can look at them and gaze
It needs space, more more space!
Colonize, globalize
We are the same, just on another scale
We all are fighting for the place
We need same space
Do they spread or do they stay
Same fight, different scale
Same life, different frame
They grow, they spread, they stay
They take, we claim
It shares space on another scale
Just waiting for you to brake.
Installation takes the form of a microcosm — an enclosed environment for microorganisms, where gelatin and agar based structures create territories for fungi, moulds, and bacteria to inhabit.
The work explores territorial struggle through the growth of competing mold cultures that spread, attack, and adapt across shared surfaces. By allowing living organisms to shape the installation autonomously, I investigate communication and conflict within microbial communities, reflecting larger human systems of colonization, coexistence, and survival. The installation invites viewers to engage with the fragile balance between domination and symbiosis through bio-artistic research.
Installation is made by Merkys Žebrauskas is an artist who works in bio and land art fields, his main goal is the symbiosis of man and nature. He finds this by observing and studying the interrelationships of other living organisms. By searching for the creation of various methods of communication with other life forms, the meaning of man in the common ecosystem changes.