Two-channel video installation, 31 min.

Ursula Biemann continues her research on indigenous knowledge in 21st century science. With a biocentric vision, this work investigates the metaphysics of plants, the relations between plants and humans and the techniques for codifying life. From the Colombian Amazon, the artist proposes to decolonise ancestral knowledge which, despite its contribution to science, is still relegated to the realm of folklore. The idea that all living things are animated by the same essence, central to the indigenous cosmovision, is confirmed by the study of DNA, the basic molecule of life. This primordial structure, present in all organisms, emits very weak but consistent light waves, at the limit of human perception. Today science believes that perhaps this perception can be activated in healing rituals with master plants such as ayahuasca. The book also showcases the Swiss Institute of Technology’s cutting-edge technology that converts digital files into DNA sequences. A technique that collapses the distinction between life and its representation and allows data to be preserved potentially forever, written in the basic code of life. This yearning for eternity contrasts with the threat to Amazonian ecosystems and their original knowledge.