Interview with Kina Madno
9. Biomédias/ Portraits d'artistes

Interview with Kina Madno

Cofondatrice du biomedialab UrsuLaB

Kina Madno est artiste et membre de Quimera Rosa. Elle a fondé et initié UrsuLab, le biomédialab d’Antre Peaux. À cette occasion nous avons mené un entretien pour nous éclairé sur ce que sont les biolabs.

– What is your experience of biolabs?

My experience in biolabs has begun in 2017, in the Etopia Center of Arts and Technologies of Zaragoza, Spain, as part of an artistic residence of the Quimera Rosa collective, to which I belong. Etopia has a professional lab supervised by a team from the University of Zaragoza, and a biologist trained us to use this laboratory.

Then, this training has continued in Barcelona, as part of a program co-supported by Hangar, Center of Production and Research in Visual Arts, and the Biomedical Research Park of Barcelona. An initial training in the PRBB in a lab (BSL3 level) on cell cultivation was followed by a biomedical research program in the Hangar biolab. With an ongoing collaboration with Hangar, the new version of its biolab occurred at the same time as that of UrsuLaB, and we have been able to pool knowledge. We also set up temporary labs as part of workshops in the Davis University, California, and the Goldsmith University in London. Finally, as part of various projects, we had access to the Ars Electronica biolab in Linz, Austria, and to the one of the Kerniskova Institute in Slovenia.

– In a few words, what is the UrsuLaB?

UrsuLaB is a new place-tool installed and supported by Antre Peaux. It’s constituted by a biology laboratory (BSL1 level, WHO accredited for its educational activities with non-pathogenic organisms), a grain stock / grain bank as well as a documentation center. It is intended to work in cooperation with different Antre Peaux sectors, to welcome artists, scientists, school groups, vegetable producers, farmers, teachers, for research, testing, transmission activities and meetings. UrsuLaB aims to diversify and put existing audiences in touch, building bridges between urban and rural worlds. UrsuLaB also offers an articulation between the local and the global, which seems to us indispensable to avoid the current nationalist tendencies. UrsuLaB is also a tool to carry out actions outside the walls from an art, science, and ecology perspective. Finally, UrsuLaB is a motor for the ecological transition of Antre Peaux.

- In a few words, what has been the progression?

The progression starts with a long time companionship between Antre Peaux and Quimera Rosa. Many prefiguration activities in the form of residences, workshops, and events, have taken place to establish the basis of UrsuLaB creation. No such biolab existed in France and the anchoring of Antre Peaux in the territory for over 35 years, the quality and diversity of its equipment as well as its professional team made it the ideal place for this project. It is from these bases that a file was produced to be presented to the Carasso Foundation. After having received a favorable answer and a significant support from their part, we began the works and equipment. From there, we reinforced our institutional partners, in particular the Centre-Val de Loire Region and the DRAC, as part of the revival plan, as well as meetings with actors from the territory. And we could, despite the pandemic situation, welcome artists and local students in residency, as well as mediations with specific audiences (schools, EHPADs), and online activities.                                                    

- Where does the word UrsuLaB come from?                                                                                                         

The name UrsuLaB is a tribute to the science -fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin, who, in her novels, has alluded for many decades to the ecological crisis we are living now. The choice of this name also establishes a feminist anchoring to address the current challenges, which is why we define UrsuLaB as a female laboratory. And lastly, a dimension that seems key to us, is that she insisted on the necessity to create new tales to be able to change the present. And contrary to many catastrophic stories, she proposed non dystopian ones (which does not mean they are utopian).

- How do you see it in a more or less near future?

To make the link with the preceding question, and following Le Guin inspiration, I would say that UrsuLaB could participate in the creation of attractive presents and possible futures, in the anchorage of synergies between various types of actors to grasp the current problems and create dialog. In practical terms, and considering the many requests we have already received, at a local level as well as an international one before we even finish the works, I imagine that in the short and medium term, UrsuLaB will be a lab appropriated by increasingly different persons and that it may become a reference location able to create new synergies in the territory where it’s located, and that increasingly more partnerships will be established between the rural and urban worlds, between the private and the public, and that new educational branches will be created.

Plus à propos de Kina Madno et du collectif laboratoire Quimera Rosa à découvrir ici : https://quimerarosa.net/

UrsuLaB est unE laboratoire artistique qui s’intéresse au sujet majeur de notre époque, le vivant et les écologies et qui intègre donc les sciences et technologies du vivant à un processus de démocratisation. Le cadre transdisciplinaire des projets développés posent de nouveaux regards sur notre monde, en particulier face à la crise écologique en cours.

Actuellement le nombre d’artistes qui adoptent les biotechnologies comme médium est en nombre croissant. Or, contrairement à la majorité des pays voisins, il n’existe en France aucun lieu dédié à ce type de pratiques.

Programmation associée

Pas de programmation associée