Exhibition:Adam Hudec – Epidermitektura

Epidermitecture is a phenomenon explored by geo-microbiologists and architects that describe the relationship between naturally occurring stains on facades of buildings and its materialities. We rarely perceive spots or any discoloration formed on outer architectural surfaces because they are usually considered as dirt or simply subject of removal.
However, these stains, scientifically called Biopatina, are in fact a thin layer of living microorganisms such as cyanobacteria, microalgae, fungi and lichen that has the ability to restore and regenerate the environment.
The investigation of Biopatina on Villa Tugendhat brought us to question what the outside of this particular building needs to look like and why almost all architectural surfaces need to be maintained to appear as new rather than those that transform,
live and become? By collecting, analysing and cultivating the Biopatina of Tugendhat house, we explored its non-human materiality that came to existence as the result of natural processes between its interiors, outer surfaces and the surrounding environment. The aim of the exhibition ‘Epidermitecture’ is to acknowledge that microbial nonhuman life is essential in functional and lasting models for co-existence in contrast to anthropocentric assumptions that arguably brought us towards the multi-layered crises which we are collectively confronted with.

Collaborators
Katja Steflinger, Michelle Howard, Monika Mitášová, Jan Kristek, Beatrice Zaidenberg, Ingrid Halland, Jakub Węgrzynowicz,
Raffaella Lamuraglia, Vladimíra Hradecká, Barbora Benčíková, Michal Koštenský, Zuzana Sojková

Performance
Edita Antalová

Curator
Neli Hejduk

Exhibition: Adam Hudec – Epidermitektura
Adam Hudec

1. 3. 2023 - 30. 4. 2023
      Vila Tugendhat
      Černopolní 45, 613 00 Brno