Would you take daily inhalations to stay young? In her work “ÆON. Trajectories of Longevity and CRISPR,” the artist Emilia Tikka constructs a poetic scenario of a possible future. The installation is exhibited at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm from 23 January 2020.
Technologies like genome editing make longevity seem attainable. Finnish artist Emilia Tikka is interested in what this would mean for society. Welcome to the opening seminar of The AEON Artwork installation at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm on 23 January at 15.00-17.00 where the artwork by Emilia Tikka will be presented and discussed with experts and visitors.
Their gestures betray that they are a couple. An embrace, a touch at the dinner table, a look in the eyes. And yet one is puzzled. The woman has almost white hair, and her skin is furrowed with wrinkles. The man, on the other hand, looks as if he’s in his mid-30s. What separates the two is not the number of years they have lived, but the decisions they have made. For decades now, the man has been preserving his youth through inhalations. The woman has let nature take its course.
ÆON is the result of the first European artist residency on genome editing. In 2018, Tikka spent three months in MDC labs, collaborating with researchers to find out how CRISPR could change our world. The residency was initiated by the ORION partner Max Delbrück Center, together with STATE. It was funded by the EU project ORION as a first step to initiate a dialogue with citizens on CRISPR.
More information and the programme for the opening seminar will be published shortly.