GMO: How far are you willing to mutate?
GMO opens during Museumnacht Amsterdam on 7 November and continues at Mediamatic until 15 November.
During Museumnacht, the exhibition expands into a one-night programme of live performances, workshops, tastings and experiments throughout the Biotoop. The installations and artworks remain on view after Museumnacht and can be visited daily until 15 November.
Visiting on 7 November? Explore the full Museumnacht programme, including all performances, workshops and their times, here.
A Genetically Modified Organism (aka GMO) is any organism whose genetic code has been rewritten in a lab. Surrounded by media panic, laws and fear of the unknown, the same anxieties persist: Are GMOs dangerous? Are they unethical? Or are we simply playing God, obsessed with controlling nature?
GMO: How far are you willing to mutate? brings together artists working with biotechnology, food, scent, plants, microorganisms and speculative futures. Across Mediamatic's labs, greenhouse and exhibition spaces, the programme looks at what happens when humans intervene in living systems — and where we draw the line between modification, adaptation and controlThe GMO exhibition runs from Sunday 8th until November 15th and is open daily from 12:00 to 18:00 with free admission.
Designed as a lower-intensity alternative, it offers the same program for anyone who finds Museumnacht a bit overstimulating or wasn't able to get a ticket. Simply walk in or join a special guided tour offered Monday through Friday at 14:00.
Information
Mediamatic Biotoop, Dijkspark 6, Amsterdam GMO Tour (Mon-Fri) 14:00-14:45 Tickets hereExhibition
I Hate the Plant, the Plant Hates Me and I Want to Become Her
Margherita Soldati
A fictional greenhouse built around an impossible relationship between an allergic body and the plant it desires but cannot eat. By feeding strawberry plants with her own blood, Soldati pushes the controlled conditions of contemporary food production to an extreme.
Museumnacht: Live performance at 20:30 and 22:30.
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Protean Language Model
HSURAE
Using machine learning to design proteins for microbial precision fermentation, HSURAE connects contemporary biotechnology with an old human desire: resisting ageing and extending life.
Museumnacht: Live choral performances at 21:30 and 23:30.
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Water soil discontent - ©Walker Tufts -
Water/Soil Discontent 水土不服
HSURAE
A work about migration, gut colonisation and the ways food, water and microorganisms continuously modify our bodies.
Museumnacht: Performance and tasting installation.
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Soft Sedation (Geosmin Yeast)
Matthijs de Block
Genetically engineered yeast becomes a scent factory producing geosmin — the molecule associated with the smell of rain hitting dry soil. The work brings synthetic biology into Mediamatic's Aroma Lab through one of the smells humans are extraordinarily sensitive to.
Soft Sedation by Matthijs De Block - ©Matthijs De Block -
Cross-Pollination Theory
Maya Erin Masuda
Beginning with conspiracy theories about chemicals altering animal sexuality, Masuda imagines the relationship in reverse: a future in which mutated plants use pollen to bio-hack humans and intervene in overpopulation.
Simple Adult Forms / Fruit Flies
Silke Riis
An evolving ecosystem of fruit flies, raw clay and natural latex takes over the Haptic Lab, asking visitors to intervene in the environment and reshape its mutant forms.
Museumnacht: Interactive activation + workshop
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Simple Adult Forms installation in the Plantkamer, Silke Riis 2026 February -
Counter-Protocol of Unstable Life
Laura Elidedt Rodriguez
Set inside Mediamatic's Clean Lab, the work examines the colonial histories embedded in familiar crops while developing a speculative hybrid of tomato, potato and corn.
Museumnacht: Interactive experience.
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Counter-Protocol of Unstable Life by Laura Rodriguez -
Curator: Laura Rosal Participating artists: HSURAE, Laura Elidedt Rodriguez, Margherita Soldati, Matthijs de Block, Maya Erin Masuda, Silke Riis and Yorke Mulder-Bhangoo. Production: Kalina Efremova Communication: Skaiste Venckeviciute Graphic Design: Ringailė DemšytėMediamatic 2026 program is made possible with the support of the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst (AFK) and the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie.
