Comprising three artists, two architects, a curator, and a scientist, our collective collaborates with the Museo Nacional de Altamira within the framework of the Organismo program, organized by TBA21. During our exploratory journey, we sought to investigate and challenge the boundaries constructed around the human and the more-than-human, as well as the inside and outside of the museum. Although we were unable to enter the original cave from the outset, we nonetheless explored the site in greater depth and endeavored to understand it in its multiplicity through our senses.
While at Altamira, we contemplated the possibility of telling another story about the cave. Fascinated by the secret life of its inhabitants—the bacteria clinging to the paintings, the fungi, the insects, the water dripping inside—we sought to give voice to the underrepresented actors in its history. A history, or multiplicity of histories, that began long before the first paintings adorned the cave walls.
Troglosoma encompasses the various geological, biological, and human strata that have existed—and will exist—within the Altamira territory. It is a story that, as humans, we cannot fully comprehend—its slow rhythms, volatile matter, and the myriad microscopic beings inhabiting the cave and its ecological surroundings surpass any human epistemology. A profound history of context that we have only been able to explore through the body, the senses, and speculative fiction.
Troglosoma is a project born from the Organismo. Art in Applied Critical Ecologies program, organized by TBA21 and the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza.
Project members: Valentin Bansac, Laura Fernández Antolín, Sofia Kouloukouri, Manuel Prados, Elena Rocabert, Oxel Urra, and Jorge Van den Eynde
Comprising three artists, two architects, a curator, and a scientist, our collective collaborates with the Museo Nacional de Altamira within the framework of the Organismo program, organized by TBA21. During our exploratory journey, we sought to investigate and challenge the boundaries constructed around the human and the more-than-human, as well as the inside and outside of the museum. Although we were unable to enter the original cave from the outset, we nonetheless explored the site in greater depth and endeavored to understand it in its multiplicity through our senses.
While at Altamira, we contemplated the possibility of telling another story about the cave. Fascinated by the secret life of its inhabitants—the bacteria clinging to the paintings, the fungi, the insects, the water dripping inside—we sought to give voice to the underrepresented actors in its history. A history, or multiplicity of histories, that began long before the first paintings adorned the cave walls.
Troglosoma encompasses the various geological, biological, and human strata that have existed—and will exist—within the Altamira territory. It is a story that, as humans, we cannot fully comprehend—its slow rhythms, volatile matter, and the myriad microscopic beings inhabiting the cave and its ecological surroundings surpass any human epistemology. A profound history of context that we have only been able to explore through the body, the senses, and speculative fiction.
Troglosoma is a project born from the Organismo. Art in Applied Critical Ecologies program, organized by TBA21 and the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza.
Project members: Valentin Bansac, Laura Fernández Antolín, Sofia Kouloukouri, Manuel Prados, Elena Rocabert, Oxel Urra, and Jorge Van den Eynde
