Laure Vigna

More Than Human, curated by Borbála Szalai and Barnabás Bencsik
at >>>> LAM


Composed of sculptures in different states of matter, the installation There Are Tides in The Body engages with local pollution in water and soil, sourced from historic landfill areas in central Budapest. It investigates the archival role of microbes and toxins in sediments and waste, tracing pollution across different eras, and interrogating the migration of contaminants.

The fact that we do not see actual elements does not mean they are not active. Bringing substances to the surface from the Danube ecologies, activating themselves through oxidation or fermentation — as the metal sheet ingests toxins displaced by water — generates new relationships across chemical and microbial exchanges. Contaminants are metamorphic entities that change their nature depending on the context and the substances they come into contact with, multiplying their effects. Through the proximity and porosity of materials in flux, the installation suggests how organisms can recombine, and how microbial communities interact with matter — morphing, adapting, or communicating. Mapping toxic ecologies also asks how to represent spaces through its invisible communities.

The sculptures exist as contaminated and potentially contaminating bodies. Their exposure, and the care some require to remain ‘alive’, such as watering them like plants in a vegetable garden, reflects on how organisms are entangled with toxic matter. As sentient mediators, the sculptures store and archive matter and contaminants. They investigate cross-contaminations occurring within metabolic systems, sensing the living and toxic layers of the environment.

This installation involves processes and living materials, combining environmental data with speculative approaches, and is intended to change continuously throughout the year-long exhibition.


Photo credit: Laure Vigna & Dávid Biró, More Than Human, Light Art Museum Budapest