Braiding Friction
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and postponed activities, Biofriction has set up a a series of Working Groups and online events to instigate an informed discussion on current situation and possible scenarios.
What does it mean to be acting in accordance with to “flatten” the mathematically constructed curve? Speculatively, it seems a little reminiscent of aspiring for the best possible version of the present. What is the role of art in the unpacking/understanding of the now? How can art mobilise a better understanding of possible futures? How can art spaces be prepared to respond to this possible pendulum of cyclical outbreaks? What alliances can be woven in this context of precariousness, life, death, and malaise?
During May, June and July, four groups are working for on these and other specific questions and concerns raising from the current situation.
Open Call Results
Resolution of Biofriction open call for the residencies in Hangar, Kapelica, Bioart Society and Cultivamos Cultura.
Biofriction selection committee, formed by Lluís Nacenta (Hangar), Laura Benitez Valero (Biofriction Art Director), Erich Berger (Bioart Society), Simon Streljaj (Kapelica), Marta de Menezes (Cultivamos Cultura), Quimera Rosa (external jury member) and Isabelle Carlier from Bandit Mages(external jury member) has decided, among the 133 valid applications received, to award the grant to:
Maddalena Fragnito and Zoe Romano (Kinlab) (one-month long residency in Hangar)
Vanessa Lorenzo (one-month long residency in Hangar)
Adriana Knouf (two-months long residency in Kapelica)
Mayra Rojo Citlalli (one-month long residency in Bioart Society)
Joel Ong (two-weeks long residency in Cultivamos Cultura)
Kira O’Reily (two-weeks long residency in Cultivamos Cultura)
Christina Gruber (two-weeks long residency in Cultivamos Cultura)
Simona Deaconescu & Vanessa Goodman (two-weeks long residency in Cultivamos Cultura)
We sincerely thank all participants and wish all the best to the awarded artists for their Biofriction residence.
Presentation and Round Table with Oron Catts
On 27 February, from 7 to 8:30 pm, Hangar will host a presentation by Oron Catts in conversation with Andy Gracie and Laura Benítez Valero, as part of the European Biofriction project.
Oron Catts will give a presentation of his artistic projects, including an introduction to SymbioticA, a pioneering research laboratory that allows artists to carry out wet biology practices in a university department of biological sciences. After the presentation, a round table will be proposed on some topics discussed, with the participation of the artist and researcher Andie Gracie and Laura Benítez Valero, director of Biofriction.
The activity is free and will take place in Hangar’s Ricson hall.
Freaktion Bar #12: ‘I will grow my burger’.
📍 Kapellica Gallery
What if we produced the food that we eat from ourselves, i.e. from various cell cultures taken from our bodies, thus minimally burdening the environment in which we live? The artist Theresa Schubert discussed the ethical questions that emerge as a result of biotechnological food production and self-cannibalism, as she, with the help of experts and scientists, produces laboratory meat from her own muscle tissue in her art project.
The event was reflected in an article on Radio Študent 89,3 MHz
Open Call
Biofriction is a Creative Europe project led by Hangar in collaboration with Bioart Society, Cultivamos Cultura, and Kersnikova Institute committed to supporting Bioart and Biohacking practices. The title refers to the combination of biology, biotech, fiction, and arts as surfaces of friction, with particular attention to the emancipatory potential of biotechnology through interfaces in the context of artistic practices. The call is addressed to projects in the field of experimentation with biomaterials, with a special emphasis on transhackfeminist as an approach (or method multiplier) to repoliticize feminism through (bio)practice.
Possible topics
Decolonizing technologies; Queer, Feminist, Anti-racist and
Anti-specist methods; Nature_culture continuum; Xenoecologies;
Biopolitics, Necropolitics and Environmental Struggle; Human and
non-human alliances and solidarity through DIY/DIWO/DIT biotechnology;
artistic and cultural practices; Fiction, Storytelling and performative
narratives; BiosurLas aplicaciones deben ser enviadas en
inglés.veillance and counter-tactics; Bioexperimentation based in open
culture; Bio_sonic agencies; Measurements and material-discursive
practices of (bio)mattering and engaging (bio)practices; Re-visit,
re-think, co-design and co-develop processes; tools and technologies for biological experimentation and Radical Open Health.
A talk about care and health by Power Make us Sick

On January 10, Hangar hosted a talk of the Power Makes us Sick collective.
Power Makes Us Sick (PMS) is a creative research project focusing on autonomous healthcare from a feminist perspective. PMS investigates the ways that our mental, physical, and social health is impacted by imbalances in and abuses of power. They understand that mobility, forced or otherwise, is an increasingly common aspect of life in the anthropocene.
Attendees were invited to take a look at the model of the text in advance online if it was desired, but the discussion did not assume any prior knowledge.
Cultivamos Cultura 