Biodegradables reflects about the physical effects of the passing of time, the way we deal with our finitude as individuals and as species, the influence of technological and scientific developments on our definition of “human”.

In collaboration with Portuguese Laboratories and Research Centres 3Bs´ and IPATIMUP, this 2014 VU’s production defies viewers to face the dazzling present where we can trace our genetic lineage, create substitute body parts from sophisticated biomaterials, prevent a disease before the symptom is visible and decide what to make of our body after death.

Drawing inspiration from the lab aesthetics and the organizational structure of the bioterium, my design makes space for humans, animals, plants, prostheses and props to be kept and maintained in equity by material, transparency and functionality. Iron, glass, fabric, play a formal see-through composition that promotes a democratized gaze. Bodies and parts are exposed and scrutinized. Costume is reduced to the performer’s skin layered with different textures and occasionally the inside is “brought out”. Real animal organs and body parts share visual space with plastic sampled relics of human vessels anatomical casts thus evoking the plastination technique by filling and objectifying what was once hollow for the passage of human fluids.