EDEN / engineered development & evolution nexus ENG
EDEN is an exhibition project by artist Suzanne Anker.
Throughout history, humanity has sought Eden — in sacred texts, in the structure of nature, and in formulas and technologies. This search continues to this day, even as it becomes increasingly unclear whether the place we so persistently seek truly exists.
The EDEN Doctrine
Suzanne Anker
Suzanne Anker is an American visual artist and theorist, born on August 6, 1946, in Brooklyn, New York. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brooklyn College and received her MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1976. Her work operates at the intersection of art and the biological sciences. Anker is considered one of the pioneers of bioart; in her artistic practice she employs genetic imagery, botanical specimens, laboratory equipment, and microscopic images. Anker has taught and continues to speak publicly, giving lectures and participating in symposia at universities and scientific institutions. She is affiliated with the Bio Art program at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York. Her works are held in museum and gallery collections and have been widely exhibited. She has participated in numerous international projects, conferences, and laboratory–art symposia.
Suzanne Anker, After Eden series
Anker consistently explores how biological processes — such as genetics, growth, extinction, and ecological degradation — are visually represented and culturally interpreted. She does not merely use scientific imagery as a «texture» but raises questions about the social, ethical, and aesthetic dimensions of biotechnology: who transforms nature, for what purpose, and how these interventions reshape our perception of life.
Her artistic repertoire includes living plants (sometimes cultivated under laboratory conditions using LED lighting), herbarium and medical specimens, microscopic photography, laboratory glassware, large-scale photography, installation, and video. These combinations allow her work to simultaneously present the material «factuality» of science while producing a strong aesthetic impact.
Suzanne Anker, Vanitas (in a Petri Dish) series
Suzanne Anker occupies a significant place in the history of contemporary practices related to the life sciences. Her contribution extends beyond the visual language of bioart to the establishment of professional and educational connections between artists, biologists, and the public. Her works make visible both emerging and ongoing transformations of life, and are therefore important not only as artistic experiences, but also as forms of social reflection.
Suzanne Anker, installation The Value of Food: Sustaining a Green Planet
Concept
Within the EDEN project, Eden is understood not as a biblical garden, but as an idealized model of nature constructed by the human imagination. For the artist, technology becomes a contemporary form of a sacred gesture — a means of approaching the mystery of the origin of life and of reconstructing its principles anew.
The laboratory is transformed into a new temple, where biology acquires mythological power and scientific instruments assume the role of ritual objects. The technological and the natural are not opposed; one grows out of the other, producing a hybrid reality.
Thus, EDEN emerges as a space in which the «natural» and the «artificial» coexist as a single, reimagined organism.
Suzanne Anker, The Glass Veil series
Spatial Framework
Ground Floor
All exhibition spaces of the project are located on the ground floor. It is conventionally divided into two parts: the first functions as a prologue, introducing the viewer to the conceptual context, while the second presents a direct interpretation of the Garden of Eden.
Second Floor
The second floor assumes an exclusively constructive role, becoming a retrospective of a unique experience. Through a system of elevated walkways, visitors are given the opportunity to view the exhibition from above and to reconsider what they have previously encountered.
Zoning
Planning Concept
The planning solution is based on a contrast of volumes. The previously mentioned first section of the exhibition is composed of a sequence of relatively enclosed spaces that «compress» the visitor and evoke the structure of a laboratory.
However, after passing through this initial labyrinth, the viewer enters the second section — an expansive space that appears wild and autonomous, the very image of the Garden of Eden. This radical shift in spatial scale emphasizes the vulnerability of the human subject in the face of technology and progress as a whole.
Visual Simulation
Entrance Group Design
«Antechamber of Spores» Corridor
Hall No. 1
Hall No. 1.5 / «Chamber of Genesis»
Hall No. 2 / «Field»
Greenhouses / «Photosynthesis Unit»
Unnumbered Hall No. 1 / Laboratory «Chemical Revelation»
EDEN
EDEN
Hall No. 3
«Chamber of Mechanical Purpose (CMP)» / craft-zone
Second Floor / EDEN
Second Floor / EDEN
Second Floor / Greenhouses
Graphic Identity
The exhibition logo combines the project title and an emblem. The latter was derived through the simplification of a theological diagram of the celestial hierarchy. A key objective was to preserve the circular form, which references one of the central motifs in the artist’s work — the Petri dish.
Within the project, the word EDEN is presented as an acronym: Engineered Development & Evolution Nexus. This decision introduces an association with scientific projects and research institutions and reinforces the core concept of the exhibition. The typographic version of the logo was developed following a study of graphic design practices within laboratory and scientific institutional culture.
Personalized Invitation
Invitations to the exhibition opening for A-list guests are delivered via a personalized mailing of a Petri dish containing cultivated mold. A custom-sized protective case is provided for transportation and subsequent storage of the object. The reverse side of the dish features a personalized sticker with event details. The sticker’s color scheme is designed in the style of warning symbols (biohazard).
Posters
This section presents three series of three posters, each revealing a distinct stage in the evolution of the EDEN world.
The first series explores organic symmetry and natural patterns, demonstrating how form emerges from living matter. The second transforms a natural sign into a technogenic icon, placing it within a context of digital noise. The third series reduces the sign to a state of pure abstraction and chromatic energy.
Tickets
The front side of the ticket is inspired by working documentation, featuring a dense amount of text and two types of codes. The reverse side contrasts in its minimalism, with the artist’s work becoming the central visual element.
Merchandise: Mushroom Collection
Mushroom Collection is a series of limited-edition table lamps conceived as a material extension of the EDEN exhibition world. Each object merges the organic form of a mushroom with artificial materials and experimental surfaces, transforming a familiar silhouette into an artifact of an alternative biology.
The collection is available to visitors as a way to take a fragment of this world with them, turning the lamp into a symbol of a new ecology.
Sensory System
The EDEN sensory system is conceived as an ascent through a sequence of trial chambers, where smell and sound function as equal mediators of meaning. Each transition becomes a small ritual, integrating the visitor into the architecture of biological processes. Sound, scent, and space merge into a single organism that breathes, resists, and gradually unfolds, drawing the visitor toward the culmination — the space of EDEN.
1. «Antechamber of Spores» Corridor
Scent: mold, dampness Sound: breathing Atmosphere: entry into an organism
2. «Chamber of Genesis»
Scent: formaldehyde Sound: a child’s cry fading into echo Atmosphere: the fragility of biological origin
3. «Field» Hall
Scent: wet soil Sound: a low, vibrating hum beneath the feet Atmosphere: a sense of concealed mechanisms at work
4. Greenhouses / «Photosynthesis Unit»
Scent: greenhouse humidity Sound: the monotonous buzzing of grow lights Atmosphere: artificially sustained life
5. Laboratory «Chemical Revelation»
Scent: isopropyl alcohol, phenol Sound: the rhythms of a copier, printer, and warming instruments Atmosphere: an industrial prayer
6. EDEN Space
Scent: forest after rain Sound: birdsong Atmosphere: the illusion of a return to nature
7. «Chamber of Mechanical Purpose (CMP)»
Scent: gasoline Sound: complete absence Atmosphere: the machine as the sole act
8. Hall No. 3
Scent: cleanliness, aldehydes Sound: light ambient melody, the popping of soap bubbles Atmosphere: meditative
What if paradise never existed — and everything we call Eden is merely humanity’s attempt to explain the complexity of life through the simultaneous languages of faith, science, and hope?
