Thomas Feuerstein with the Metabolica work cycle in the MQ freedom

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Thomas Feuerstein with the Metabolica work cycle in the MQ freedom

From September 2025, Thomas Feuerstein will present all five chapters of his large -scale work cycle in a comprehensive solo exhibition from September 2025. The artist has been working on Metabolica for many years, an artistic research project that explores the interfaces of art, science and biotechnology. The exhibition leads the visitors: inside in the Feuerstein’s “Factory of Life” and enables a wide range of installations to dive into topics such as circular economy, resource consumption, sustainability and artistic practice.

The five chapters of Metabolica

The five chapters of the Metabolica work cycle lead through various stages of artistic and biological transformations. In doing so, he spans the bow from industrial modernity to possible post -fossil future. The first chapter Moby Dick shows the large sculpture called Hydrain the algae (Chlorella vulgaris) grow. The algae produce fatty acids through special nitrogen circuits and a converted oil pump.

MS & MR MOL is the name of the second chapter in which specific bacteria are the fatty acids of the algae from the first chapter in PhB (Polyhydroxybutyrat) transform – this is a biologically produced plastic that is used for the next artistic steps. In the third chapter Refinery, PHB is obtained from the bacterial mass and fed to the fourth chapter of the 3D-printing machine. This creates sculptures that are reminiscent of natural forms such as stagmites.

The fifth chapter, Whole Dearth Catalog & Good Rotten Goods, refers to the Whole Earth CatalogAn influential magazine from the 1960s and 1970s. This chapter is about how we can deal with our resources better today and in the future. The PHB works of art (sculptures from the biodegradable plastic) are not only produced, but also deliberately decomposed by bacteria. As a result, the sculptures slowly turn back into natural substances that can be used again for new things. This creates a natural cycle.

Over a hundred ink drawings are also part of the work cycle. They graphically present the thinking of the Metabolica cosmos with quotations and notes. The famous Mickey Mouse from Walt Disney appears both in the drawings and on mirror objects. Feuerstein thus combines the emergence of the iconic comic figure in the 1920s with the beginning of the petromodernity – a time that is shaped by the use of fossil energies and the consequences of which can now be felt in the climate crisis.

With Metabolica, Thomas Feuerstein questions the relationships between resource consumption, sustainability and artistic creation. Art is not understood as a completed product, but as part of a comprehensive social transformation process.

The exhibition in the MQ freedom opens up new perspectives on the urgent questions of our time and impressively shows how art and science can work together.

Information material, photos and exhibition views under mqw.at/presse/mq-thomas-feuerstein-mit-dem-werkzyklus-metabolica-im-mq-freiraum

Thomas Feuerstein Metabolica
Ort: MQ freedom
press conference: DI, 16. September 2025, 11H
Opening: Mi, 17. September 2025, 19h
Duration: Do September 18, 2025 – February 1, 2026
Curated by: Verena Kaspar-eisert, chief curator