ArchaeaBot and Susceptible in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

ArchaeaBot and Susceptible were presented in EFECT DE LA MICRO LA MACRO as part of QUANTUM 2020 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, from 24 November to 12 December 2020. The exhibition took place in the former Hotel Continental, where works were shown through the building’s windows so they could remain publicly accessible during COVID-19 restrictions.

That setting changed how the works were encountered. Rather than entering a conventional gallery space, visitors met them from the street, through glass, at a moment when public contact, infection, and visibility had a particular urgency. ArchaeaBot and Susceptible both deal with life at scales that are difficult to perceive directly, and this presentation sharpened that connection by placing speculative post-climate and microbial imaginaries into a city-centre context shaped by the realities of the pandemic.

For May, the exhibition showed how digital and bio-informed works can adapt to altered public conditions without losing their conceptual force. The project remained rooted in questions of ecology, mediation, and how technology shapes what can be seen and understood, while also responding directly to a moment when access to art had to be rethought.