Art Made of Science Microspheres

The Quo Artis Foundation in collaboration with the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site present the first exhibition in Spain by artist Ayse Gül Süter (Turkey, 1982), which investigates the differences between healthy and diseased tissues through a site-specific installation in the old operating room of Hospital Sant Pau. 

The spheres resemble cells, tiny building blocks that make up the human body. Cells are the smallest components that represent life in our body. The idea behind the exhibition Art Made of Science — Microspheres by the artist Ayse Gül Süter arose during her stay as a resident artist at the Histopathology lab of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), where scientists observe microscopic samples of healthy and diseased tissues taken from the liver, eye, skin or lung, whose visual differences allow them to study and understand the pathologies.  

The images that make up Süter’s site-specific installation focus mainly on the visually distinctive forms of these tissues. The artist adapts her observations to produce large-scale images. The work thus converts the “invisible” parts of the human body — the cells — “visible”, and invites the public to experiment with large-scale human cell structures. 

The installation, which will be displayed on the windows of the old operating room of the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site, takes advantage of the daylight in the same way the operating room used to. The colors of the piece change depending on the intensity of light and can be considered a contemporary interpretation of art-stained glass (vitrail).

In conjunction with the installation, the video Flight over cells, created by the artist at the Histopathology lab of the IRB Barcelona, will be shown. Visitors will witness the visual differences between healthy and diseased tissues, and how researchers rely on visual representations to diagnose cancer.