A DNA Artifact , 2007

 

 

 

A DNA Artifact

Running time: 5 days
Performance, 2007

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In 2007, the artist carried out a three-part performative action across distinct European geographies—Munich, Extremadura, and Niederzissen—combining field observation, basic biotechnology, and cultural reflection.

Act I began at the Ostfriedhof cemetery in Munich, at the grave of filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder. A flower from the site was collected, and its DNA extracted and preserved using basic lab protocols.

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Act II followed in Extremadura, Spain, near the Museo Vostell Malpartida. Local wildflowers were collected in proximity to the former studio of artist Wolf Vostell. Their DNA was extracted and refrigerated under similar conditions.

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Act III took place in a forest near Niederzissen, Germany. Under an oak tree, two plastic figurines—Bart and Marge Simpson—were bound together and submerged in a Petri dish containing the combined DNA solutions from the previous acts. A residual portion of the DNA mixture was fixed onto a copper plate using clear resin, producing a material record of the action.

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The operation is cultural and procedural. The collected sites are nodes in postwar artistic and cinematic history, but also speak to the broader process of how individuality and dissent have been increasingly absorbed by systems of representation and normalization. In the decades following World War II, difference—once persecuted—was progressively tolerated, codified, commodified, and ultimately, turned into cultural capital. Figures became characters; lives became formats. The project draws attention to these shifts by juxtaposing material trace (DNA) with figures from mass entertainment—ubiquitous, neutral, endlessly reproduced.

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The piece dialogues with Siegfried Zielinski’s variantology, especially his call for alternative, non-linear approaches to cultural and media history.

 

The ephemeral nature of the performance contrasts with the longevity of the biological material, leaving not only a record but a new configuration: a molecular artifact of movement, memory, and media.

 

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Grave of filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder, at the Ostfriedhof cemetery, Munich, Germany

 

 

Museo Vostell, Malpartida, Extremadura, Spain

 

 

Bart and Marge Simpson were submerged in a Petri dish containing a

composite solution of the extracted DNA

A forest near Niedersizzen, Germany

 

 

 

Bart and Marge Simpson were submerged in a Petri dish containing a

composite solution of the extracted DNA

A forest near Niedersizzen, Germany

 

 

 

The fused DNA was fixed on a copper plate using clear resin