Centre Pompidou's 'La fabrique du vivant' Blurs Boundaries Between Art, Science, and Life

The third edition of Mutations / Créations at Centre Pompidou in Paris, running until April 15, 2019, interrogates the notion of the living through its main exhibition 'La fabrique du vivant.' Curated by Marie-Ange Brayer and Olivier Zeitoun, the show is structured in four sections: L'Ingénierie du naturel, Modéliser le vivant, Nouvelles matérialités, and Programmer le vivant. It features over 100 projects including Formafantasma's Botanica series, Claudia Pasquero and Marco Poletto's Hortus_XL, Neri Oxman's Aguahoja Artifacts, and Hongjie Yan's Semi-Human Vase made partly from human cancer cells. The exhibition also includes the first European solo show of Brazilian artist Erika Verzutti and the Forum Vertigo talks organized by IRCAM. The curators emphasize the semi-living nature of the works, many of which are in a process of growth or decay. The installation uses dim lighting and Biotope, a sound piece by Jean-Luc Hervé selected by IRCAM, to create an eerie atmosphere. However, the review notes a weakness: the static museum setting may not fully capture the evolving, living quality of the works.