Erdungen
With Erdungen, microbiologist Nadine Präg and artist Judith Saupper explore the connections between humans and soil at the Palais Liechtenstein / Feldkirch. They pose fundamental questions: What connects us literally to soil? Can a sense of belonging to a place, a landscape, or a region be made visible on a molecular level?
To explore these questions, they analyze soil samples from places of personal significance using bacterial cultures and DNA analysis. These samples are linked to different layers of time: the shared birthplace Feldkirch and childhood locations represent the past; their current places of residence, Innsbruck and Parisdorf, stand for the present; and their places of longing, Chile, Ireland, Iceland, and Japan, offer a glimpse into the future. Las Vegas, the project’s non-place, is outsourced and can be discovered in the KUNSTBOX at Jahnplatz / Feldkirch.
Three photographs per location depict the microbial portraits of the soils in chronological order, a visual approach to what is seemingly invisible. At the same time, DNA analyses compare the microbial communities in the soil with those found on the skin of the artist and the scientist. Similarities and differences in these microbial worlds are visualized in diagrams on the walls. Jellyfish-like drawings float through the space, making the complexity, fluidity, and invisibility of microbial connections between body, place, and earth tangible. Thus, a multi-layered dialogue emerges between humans and soil, memory and analysis, science and art.
exhibition view room birthplace / childhood location Palais Liechtenstein
exhibition view room places of longing Palais Liechtenstein
KUNSTBOX Feldkirch
non-place Las Vegas
non-place Las Vegas
Diagram Las Vegas
77 bacterial genera are found in both the skin and soil microbiomes (representing 25 % of all genera detected in the samples). They comprise roughly ten times as many species, but the overlap at the exact species level is considerably lower.
non-place Las Vegas
exhibition view James Joyce Passage Feldkirch
places of longing
Präg and Saupper have 186 genres in common with their place of longing.
billboard 200 x 300cm
non-place
Präg and Saupper have 77 common genera with their non-place.
billboard 200 x 300cm
birthplace
Präg and Saupper have 130 genera in common with their birthplace.
billboard 200 x 300cm
view room place of residence Palais Liechtenstein
Diagram Innsbruck
77 bacterial genera are found in both the skin and soil microbiomes (representing 24,5 % of all genera detected in the samples). They comprise roughly ten times as many species, but the overlap at the exact species level is considerably lower.
2025, mural, paint marker on wall and paper, approx. 200 x 200 cm
Innsbruck 1–3
Development of microbial colonies from soil isolates on nutrient media
2025, c-prints on dibond, each 20 x 20 cm
Innsbruck 3
Development of microbial colonies from soil isolates on nutrient media
2025, c-print on dibond, 20 x 20 cm
Diagram Tschagguns
56 bacterial genera are found in both the skin and soil microbiomes (representing 25,6 % of all genera detected in the samples). They comprise roughly ten times as many species, but the overlap at the exact species level is considerably lower.
2025, mural, paint marker on wall and paper, approx. 200 x 200 cm
Tschagguns 3
Development of microbial colonies from soil isolates on nutrient media
2025, c-print on dibond, 20 x 20 cm
exhibition view room birthplace / childhood location
Feldkirch 1-3
Development of microbial colonies from soil isolates on nutrient media
2025, c-print on dibond, each 20 x 20 cm
Irland 3
Development of microbial colonies from soil isolates on nutrient media
2025, c-print on dibond, 20 x 20 cm
Japan 3
Development of microbial colonies from soil isolates on nutrient media
2025, c-print on dibond, 20 x 20 cm
Diagram Altstätten
107 bacterial genera are found in both the skin and soil microbiomes (representing 31,1 % of all genera detected in the samples). They comprise roughly ten times as many species, but the overlap at the exact species level is considerably lower.
2025, mural, paint marker on wall and paper, approx. 200 x 200 cm
Altstätten 1-3
Development of microbial colonies from soil isolates on nutrient media
2025, c-print on dibond, each 20 x 20 cm
view room place of residence
Diagram Parisdorf
103 bacterial genera are found in both the skin and soil microbiomes (representing 31,5 % of all genera detected in the samples). They comprise roughly ten times as many species, but the overlap at the exact species level is considerably lower.
2025, mural, paint marker on wall and paper, approx. 200 x 200 cm
Parisdorf 1-3
Development of microbial colonies from soil isolates on nutrient media
2025, c-print on dibond, each 20 x 20 cm
exhibition view room non-place