Kyoto Art Center, 2021
Kyoto Art Center, 2021
Biostasis is a period of steady inactivity in which an organism, while remaining alive, undergoes the suspension of all its metabolic processes.
Crucian carps can survive winter water temperatures below 0° by adopting a biostasis state, a combination of freeze-tolerance strategies and resistance to oxygen’s absence. Under that condition, bodily animation stops, metabolic processes cease, and cell’s energy is decreased to the bare minimum to keep the tissues alive. When the warm months come again and the water melts, carps resume their normal life functions.
Guided by a scientist, Stasis creates the conditions for a crucian carp to activate its self-regulating system to undergo cryogenic preservation. By simulating and capturing these conditions Stasis searches for a biological state that hovers between living and non-living.
Credits
Director | Maya Watanabe
Director of Photography | Sebastián Díaz Morales
1st AC Focus Puller | Niels Zonnenberg
Sound | German Popov, OMFO
Assistants | Daniel Jacoby, Nina Stottrup
Special thanks
Lucas Evers and Waag Society