Maaijke Middelbeek
1979, Nijmegen NL
Currently lives & works in Vienna AT
ARTIST STATEMENT:
My work is interdisciplinary, eco-emancipated and posthumanist. I explore our multispecies entanglements by collaborating with living organisms, to co-create stories — be it Sci-Fi or speculative fabulation — for alternative worlds that nurture the vitality and potentiality of human and other-than-human beings. Learning about ecology and witnessing the rapid human-induced change in our biosphere, my work counteracts and embodies care and connection, fostering curiosity and the prospects for symbiotic futures. My exhibitions showcase biological processes and often invite the audience to interact or “become with”, for example through objects designed for interspecies communication with algae, fungi and bacteria >> join in a "Live Photosynthesis Performance" with algae, swallow my artwork - the "I, Holobiont…" responsive bacterial capsule - and go on an audio-guided trip through the microcosm, or decomposing collected unwanted garments by working together with fungi.
I interact and gleefully co-exist with various species in my Studio-Lab; bacteria, fungi and algae. Currently I work on my concept for a chimera fantasy for the Symbiocene: a transformation in a Homo Photosynthesis, a chimera tangled with the photosynthetic breath of algae, a human-algae photosymbiont absorbing the air’s burden of ever-increasing CO2 emissions. I am analysing new and old human-sea and human-algae relationships, researching algae friendly cultivation and getting inspired by plant-animals, to find ways to become more chloroplastic and transform myself.
BACKGROUND:
I studied Fashion & Textile design at AMFI - Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (1999 - 2004, BA). After graduating I worked in different fields of the fashion industry, mostly in journalism (e.g. L’Officiel NL) and copywriting (e.g. Unfold/Press Only PR). I experienced the rapid change in a volatile fast-fashion-industry and soon felt the need to tell different contradictory stories, in addition I longed to devote myself to more autonomous and conceptual work. In 2015 I moved to Vienna where I found a fruitful base to grow art and set up exhibitions.
EXHIBITIONS:
2025:
Exhibition KEEP IT CO2OL curated by focus Terra at ETH Zürich - science based installation based on my concept 'Live Photosynthesis Performance', opening August 2025
AUSLANDSSTIPENDIUM Helsinki, Finland: project and HIAP residency realised in collaboration with the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport (BMKOES).
Zeewier Symposium (Seaweed Symposium) in the Netherlands, invited by Platform DIS (postponed)
2024
LUDIC TERRITORIES interactive exhibition curated by Çağdaş Çeçen at Das LOT Wien
2023
Presentation of my work for the division Microbial Ecology Prof. Dr. David Berry at UBB (Biology Building of the University of Vienna) invited by Sanaz Khadem.
Wardrobe Wasteland: A Tale of Metamorphosis Vienna Art Week House of Passion - part of the group exhibition and Open Studio Days, November 2023
Publication with the show: Chronicles of the Earth's Underbelly
I, Holobiont - responsive bacterial capsule Artist Intervention at Salon Zukunfstkultur, Art for Regeneration, Auslandskulturtagung (cultural conference of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in MQ - curated by Verena Kaspar Eisert.
Febr. 18th - May 21st Künstlerhaus Wien, exhibition with the other selected artists from the ON THE ROAD AGAIN call, supported by BMEIA Austrian Minsistry of Foreign Affairs, curated by Simon Mraz and Christian Helbock.
THROUGH OOZE and SLIME Jan. 18th - 31st - SOLO exhibition with the Austrian Cultural Forum Zagreb, supported by BMEIA Austrain Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at Galerija Na Katu, KIC Zagreb, HR (part of ON THE ROAD AGAIN).
Link: Biology students visiting the exhibition
Article in newspaper Jutarji List
Publication in Apocalypse Zine #3 by Sarah Sharafi
2022
ON THE ROAD AGAIN Panel Discussion about our projects with jury member Christoph Thun Hohenstein and artists Anna Witt and Claudia Larcher (see also ON THE ROAD AGAIN 2023).
POROUS PROJECTIONS May 05th - June 30th, at Afro-Asiatsisches Institut Graz. Curated by Huda Takriti and Kyungrim Lim Jang.
Publication: POROUS PROJECTIONS interview about cultivation, contamination and being an other-mother. PDF of the article under Porous Projections.
OTHER-MOTHER photo exhibition in collaboration with art-historian & framer Veronika Korbei, side programm of Foto Wien in M2.
MY ARTIFICIAL WOMB at Soho Studios Vienna with QM&A curated by Ale Zapata. From May to Nov. 2021 I joined the Question Me & Answer artist collective. During these months I made research on SCOBY (Symbiotic Cultures Of Bacteria & Yeast) and collaborated with artist Mary Maggic.
2021
REACTIVE FUNGI WEARABLE at Red Carpet Showroom U-bahn station Karplsplatz in July'21. Collaboration with Question Me & Answer.
2020
TERRAIN VAGUE at Galerie SPZ in Prague, with Andreas Perkmann Berger and Rainer Stadlbauer from Kunstraum SUPER, Oct. 29 - Nov. 20, 2020
August 26 Gugging Sommerfest: drawing Tastsinn for #freudebereiten
Galerie Gugging
Compost Archaeology + Tastes like Honey
July 2020, Research Residency Künst in der Natur, Waldviertel AT.
2019
December 2019 to March 2020 Banner at Galerie SPZ Prague. Kunstraum Super Vienna invited me to design a flag as an announcement for an upcoming show in Galerie SPZ in Prague.
July 5 - August 8, 2019 TRANSITIONEN Group show with Kunstraum Super in Anti-chambre Düsseldorf. Curated by: Wilko Austermann, Andreas Perkmann Berger and Rainer Stadlbauer.
2018
September 25th - 30th. From one skin to another
Parallel Vienna, a Project Statement with Basement Autonomes Kunstraum. Duo exhibition with artist Christina Boula www.parallelvienna.com
2017
May - June 2017. Geschichten aus Schichten with Format.strk Vienna. Duo show with New Media artist Kevin Daryl Ferdinandus.
Strategische Kapitulation Website
2016
September 2016 - Zeitzoo Group Exhibition, Vienna.