The bio artists Xandra van der Eijk (‘Seasynthesis’), Cheng Guo (‘Anon. - An intervention in the Anthropocene’) and Jiwon Woo (‘Mother's Hand Taste – Son-mat’) were announced winners of the 2107 Bio Art & Design Award (BAD Award) on Friday 19 May. The jury chose these bio artists and designers from twelve teams of collaborating international artists, designers and scientists. The artists will use the award money of 25,000 euros to implement their art projects. The implementation of each BAD Award project is carried out in close cooperation with a Dutch research institution.

The final of the BAD Award was a huge success. A large audience had gathered to
witness the participants make their presentations about their plans for an art
project. The international jury, headed by chair William Myers (writer and curator,
United States), was impressed by the teams’ creativity. Striking themes this
years included the legacy of human beings, the influence of human beings on the
earth, and new forms of communication between humans, animals and plants.

‘During the interviews,’ Myers says, ‘the interaction between the artists and
researchers from the winning teams was extremely inspiring and convincing.’ Xandra
van der Eijk, from the Netherlands, is going to use the award to develop an installation
based on sound and vibration, which will put the audience in the position to
experience life beneath the waves of the North Sea. As such, she will be
bringing an unknown world, namely that of the sea, closer to the audience. Van
der Eijk will be working on this project with Wageningen Marine Research (WUR).
Artist Cheng Guo from China, in collaboration with the Department of Environment and Health (VU) is studying the intriguing micro- and
macro-entanglements of culture, technology and nature, by extracting and
erasing physical human traces in land. Jiwon Woo from New York is examining,
together with the Institute of Environmental Biology, Microbiology group of
Utrecht University, how fungi on the hands of people in Korean households
affect the taste of food. Woo is going to use the prize to create sculptures
and visualisations that demonstrate how these fungi have changed across
generations and in different locations, as families have migrated and passed on
these fungi.

The winning artworks will be exhibited from 1 December 2017 onwards at MU.

Background of the BAD Award
The BAD Award is an annual international contest. The aim is to allow artists
and designers who have graduated no more than five years ago to experiment with
bio art and design and extend the boundaries of art and science. The 2017 BAD
Award is an initiative of NWO, the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research
and Development, MU artspace and BioArt Laboratories. The BAD Award is a
continuation of the successful Designers & Artists for Genomics Award
(DA4GA), which enjoyed international acclaim between 2010 and 2013. Established
by the Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI) and Waag Society, the award soon
began to attract the attention of the fast-growing group of young creative
people whose work focuses on exploring new possibilities in biotechnology. The
2017 BAD Award jury is composed as follows:

- William Myers, curator and writer (United States/the Netherlands), chair of the jury

- Ian Brunswick, curator, Science Gallery Dublin (Ireland)

- Manon Parry, university lecturer of public history, the University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands)

- Brendan Cormier, curator of contemporary design for the V&A Museum, London (United Kingdom)

- Samir Bantal, director of AMO, design division of Rem Koolhaas's architecture firm OMA,
Rotterdam (the Netherlands)

- Charlotte Jarvis, bio artist and film-maker, previous winner of the BAD Award (United Kingdom)

Laudations winners Bio Art & Design Award 2017

Xandra van der Eijk (NL) ‘Seasynthesis’
In collaboration with: Wageningen Marine Research - Wageningen University & Research
First, the jury was impressed with the quality of this collaboration, in which it was clear that understanding, mutual respect had formed. Xandra demonstrated an unwavering passion for her topic, which is in line with its urgency, that of our collective impact on the seas. To this she adds an inspirational willingness to bring to an audience the world of unknown or under-appreciated sounds of the sea. We hope, as she does, that the sensorial experience this project delivers might help us develop better inter-species empathy.

Cheng Guo (China) ‘Anon. - An intervention in the Anthropocene’
A collaboration with: Department of Environment and Health - VU University Amsterdam
The jury found this project to be a compelling and poetic means to question human impact on the land, and the potential futility of attempting that impact’s erasure. In recursive layers, human effort washes away human effort in a performance, involving the transformation of land that was never land even to begin with. The jury was impressed by the artist’s planning and investment in both the practical and conceptual aspects of his proposal.

Jiwon Woo (USA) ‘Mother's Hand Taste (Son-mat)’
In collaboration with: Institute of Environmental Biology, Microbiology group - Utrecht University
The jury was impressed by how this project combines intangible cultural heritage, microbiology, and immigration. By isolating and identifying the biological traces of the fungi found on the hands of different generations, the project will undoubtedly strengthen ties between those generations, as it goes on to discover what is maintain, lost, and added over vast spaces and time.

More information

This is a joint press release by NWO, the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, MU  artspace, art centre Stroom The Hague and BioArt Laboratories.

For more information, please contact: 

NWO, Communication
Tessa van Leeuwen, phone.: +31 6 53 75 64 23
t.vanleeuwen@nwo.nl