QUORUM SENSING

2023

Program ‘El Mediterráneo: Un Mar Redondo’ at ARCOmadrid 2023.
Curated by Marina Fokidis

QUORUM SENSING is a work that explores the social life of human gut bacteria and the ways in which these microorganisms engage in coexistence.

The project evolves from Asunción’s garden commision at Jameel Art Centre, IN TRANSIT (Taxonomy of a Journey), in which Molinos created a garden out of the seeds that have lived in the intestines of the people that either live or visit the city of Dubai.

Both projects have as starting point Al Aweer Treatment Plant, which processes Dubai’s sewage from domestic wastewater and septage. The sludge that arrives to the treatment plant contains the feces from a very international and diverse group of people, those who live in the city and those who transit in the airport.

Contained inside those feces there are an extraordinary collection of seeds from the foods people ate, as well as an extremely diverse section of gut microbiota

On the occasion of the garden, solid sludge was collected from the plant, from which the garden at Jameel grew. Simultaneously tree types of liquid sludge (Raw, Digestive and Active) were sampled and taken to AUS labs for analysis and further research.

In collaboration with gut microbiologist Ruqaiyyah Siddiqui we initiated the process of bacteria sampling the sludge collected at Al Aweer, using as a threshold the human body temperature of 37 degrees.

The main focus of the research was not so much to identify the types of bacteria contained in the sludge, but rather their social behaviour.

The relationships among bacteria has been previously studied by an array of gut experts identifying a set of patterns such as commensal, mutualist, parasite, cheating…nevertheless most gut microbiologists have concluded that the organizing principles of bacterial life is cooperation, and they remark that symbiosis hints at the threads that connect all life on Earth.

Under such premises this project aims to be an allegory for diversity and pluralism exploring the ways in which bacteria interactions could offer new grounds for rethinking human social life.

The work Quorum Sensing borrows its name from the mechanisms in which bacteria communicates.

Bacteria uses a chemical language in which each one releases a molecule; when the molecule’s concentration is high, bacteria changes their behavior pattern.

In a mixed community, different bacterial species have been found to adapt in order to stave off unnecessary competition, seeking for the coexistence of all members.