We are pleased to share that the Centre for Living Technologies has contributed to MicroCodex, which premiered in the group exhibition We Live Here Too, curated by Lieneke Hulshof, at Buitenplaats Kasteel Wijlre.
The exhibition invites visitors to look at the world through the eyes of animals and other non-human life forms – ranging from kingfishers and wild boars to insects, cows, and microbes. The works presented explore how these beings experience the human-shaped landscape, and how agriculture, industry, and environmental pressures transform their existence.
Within this context, MicroCodex introduces a new voice: that of a microbe adapted to live in the toxic waters of the Silbersee in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, East Germany. Into its DNA, the line by poet Walt Whitman –“For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” has been encoded.
Background:
In the East-German town of Bitterfeld-Wolfen, an artificial toxic lake has been formed through decades of wastewater dumping by local chemical factories. The resulting body of water has been given the name Silbersee by locals in reference to the use of silver compounds by the nearby film-factory. After destroying the existing ecosystem, the waters of the Silbersee became a fertile ground for a new microbiome. A collection of microbes that has specifically adapted to thrive in these troubled waters.
In MicroCodex, the phrase of poet Walt Whitman has been encoded within the DNA of one of the microbes found in the Silbersee. This genetically modified microorganism is displayed within a sculptural bioreactor – a closed life-support system that will allow it to live and grow and reproduce throughout the duration of the exhibition. With every new generation of microbes, genetic mutation might alter the sentence’s structure, meaning, or legibility. The words are reimagined by the metabolism of this microorganism, and by the toxic water it inhabits. Every two weeks, the DNA of the microbe is sequenced and the new mutations of the poem are added to the archive shown on the LED-display in the exhibition space.
After a few weeks the microbe responded:
“for every atom belongs to you”
Photo credits: Artist Stef Veldhuis
We Live Here Too runs from 31 August 2025 to 1 March 2026 in the Hedge House at Buitenplaats Kasteel Wijlre.
More information on the exhibition →
Project contributers:
Research Advisors
Fred Walkow
Constanze Müller
MDSE
Marko Grossmann
Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung GmbH – UFZ
Dr. Ivonne Nijenhuis
Dr. Carsten Vogt
Florian Tschernikl
Wageningen University and Research
Dr. Raymond Staals
Sarah de Roode
Dianka Dees
Dr. Diana Machado de Sousa
Tom Schonewille
Technical Assistance
Joost Plattel
Curator
Lieneke Hulshof
MicroCodex has been made possible with the support of the Centre for Living Technologies, and with generous funding from the Mondriaan Fund, AFK Fund, and DutchCulture. Exhibition permits have been applied for and granted by the Bureau for Genetically Modified Organisms (Bureau GGO).