Günes-Hélène Isitan – Sine Qua Non

As a species, Humans tends to see themselves as an autonomous entity; this conception implies, among other things, that human beings are entirely contained in their individual "skin bags", isolated not only from each other, but also from non-human entities. However, we are deeply embedded in the world from which we emerged; and so are all living things on this planet.
To approach those microorganisms from a fresh angle, and, hopefully, initiate a positive reframing of the entities known as microbe and Human, the artworks presented in this exhibition all are inter-species collaborative endeavours.

Günes-Hélène Isitan is a Canadian artist-researcher in biomedia arts. She studied photography and intermedia at Concordia University, and holds a graduate diploma in Actual Artistic Practices and a micro-diploma in Microbiology from Sherbrooke University. A grant recipient of the CALQ, the CAC and the CAM, she presents her works in numerous individual and group exhibitions, both in Canada and abroad, and participates in several conferences and artist residencies in the biomedia field. She is considered to be one of the first Canadian artists to take an interest in the human’s microbiota, to grasp the formidable implications of these discoveries from a philosophical point of view and to reveal their creative potential.