19 UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG The exhibition attracted a great deal of interest from the public and enjoyed considerable media attention - including five TV interviews and one radio interview with the curators, and critical reviews in the press. It was a ground-breaking endeavour, which has set a precedent for other bioart/design shows to follow. It is accompanied by an ongoing public programme titled ‘Intra-actions.’ The programme consists of live and online panel discussions, presentations, and film screenings. Four ‘Intra-actions’ sessions have been presented to date. Building on the success of the first version, the CMRC will be curating a second iteration of the SIM | BIO | ART show in 2024. The exhibition is anticipated to bring in approximately eight creative output subsidies. A second highlight of the year was the publication of the volume ‘the Imagined New (or what happens when History is a Catastrophe? Volume 1. Working Through Alternative Archives: Art, History, Africa and the African Diaspora’ edited by Anthony Bogues, Leora Farber, Surafel Wodimu Abebe, and Zamasele Nsele. The volume was the outcome of a workshop of the same title, held in 2019. Collaboratively hosted by the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice (CSSJ), Brown University and VIAD, the workshop consisted of a series of curated conversations and interdisciplinary engagements. Visual Identities in Art & Design (VIAD) The highlight of VIAD’s achievements for 2023 was undoubtedly the ‘SIM | BIO | ART Intra-acting at the critical node between microbiology and contemporary art’ exhibition, held at the FADA gallery from 20 July to 19 August 2023. The exhibition marked the launch of the Creative Microbiology Research Co-lab (CMRC), and the opening of the bioart/design laboratory in the FADA building. The CMRC is an interfaculty collaboration between VIAD and the Water and Health Research Centre, Faculty of Health Sciences. The exhibition proved to be a milestone in the history of the FADA Galleries’ shows to date. It was the first major consolidated group exhibition of bioart/design to be held in Southern Africa. It featured the work of members of the CMRC, all of whom use a range of living and non/living biological forms to render the invisible microcosmic world visible. Collectively, these artists and designers point to how our bodies are an ecosystem enmeshed with the living and non/living matter that surrounds and is inside us. In their work these artists responded to and raised public awareness of urgent environmental issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, sustainable ecologies, sanitation and hygiene.
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