Sybille Neumeyer - Getxophoto

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Sybille Neumeyer

souvenirs entomologiques

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3D Scans by ffish.asia/FloraZia.com, CC0 1.0;
Digital Archive of Natural History (DiNArDa), CC BY 4.0;
University Libraries at Virginia Tech, CC BY 4.0;

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a quarter of Europe’s insect species are in danger of extinction. This project, souvenirs entomologiques (entomological souvenirs), is the result of a collaboration with the Natural History Museums of Berlin and Karlsruhe. It connects the decline in insect numbers with digital archive practices which, paradoxically, contribute to the destruction of ecosystems through their energy consumption and CO₂ emissions, while perpetuating an extractivist, colonial perspective on living systems by reducing them to data packets.

Insects, which accumulate heavy metals and toxic substances in their bodies, are commonly used as bioindicators because of their great sensitivity to environmental changes. In a future without real insects, their phantom incarnations –created using techniques such as photogrammetry, which produces three-dimensional representations from photographs– will remain as vestiges of a vanished world and will be an invitation to observe it from a less anthropocentric perspective.

Born in 1982, Sybille is an interdependent artist and post-disciplinary researcher with focus on environmental issues and eco–logical relationships. She is searching for transformative narratives, modes of rooting and collective action towards social, ecological and multispecies justice. Neumeyer’s work is based on dialogues and collaborations with humans and non-humans. Through polyphonic (hi)storytelling, installations, performative lectures, and video essays, she examines terrestrial communities, planetary metabolisms and multispecies atmospheres. As cultural worker she also hosts and organises participatory formats for collective (un)learning, such as walks, workshops and reading groups. Sybille Neumeyer’s works have been presented at LABoral Gijon, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Charité Berlin, Art Laboratory Berlin, Onassis Stegi, EXiS Film Festival Seoul, Kunsthaus Dresden, ZKM Karlsruhe and DESY Hamburg, amongst others. In 2014 she was awarded the International Aesthetica Art Prize. Currently, she is a postgraduate fellow at the Berlin Centre for Advanced Studies in Arts and Sciences at the Berlin University of the Arts.