Life on Mars might not
want to be found
.png)
Drawing upon the urban legends, ghost stories and extraordinary experiences linked to the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum site, the work builds a speculative cartography of encounters with other-than-humans and considers their agency.
The work is a cross-pollination of meaning of life forms encounters between science and magic stretching between eras, extinction events and other-than-human archives.
Starting with the image of the six-fingered hand carving, touch is explored here as a gesture that activates portals of sensing and as a contaminant on a human and planetary scale. This work speculates about life forms evolving in human-free environments, and the practice of terraforming by the Earth stemming Martian life forms.
At Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta, MT
{HōÔaneuu}
Video HD 2560 x 1440 (1’50”)
Life on Mars might not want to be found ( 2025) video excerpt
Life on Mars might not want to be found ( 2025) video excerpt
.png)
čyyiioo
Augmented Reality (AR)
work & HD video 2560×1440
Well over 100 definitions of life have been proposed, yet extremophiles, viruses, and chemical systems displaying life-like behaviours continue to expand our conception of what life is. This work speculates about forms of life that elude our imagination and considers the possibility of life evolving on Mars, shaped by our own contamination through prolonged presence and the deployment of our machines. The Perseverance rover has already collected samples that sit on the Martian surface, waiting.
Seems at home
Seems at Home addresses the possibility of life evolving on another planet. In this work, the materials that make up the Perseverance Mars rover, titanium and aluminium, are interpreted using Lilly Kolisko's planetary metal correspondences. It explores the concept of randomness and the odds of life evolving on Mars through the analysis of metal correspondences and how these metals are influenced by the positions of planets. By combining the alignment of planets with the interpretation of metals, the work speculatively asks whether life can evolve from the organisms we may have inadvertently left behind through our machines.
The possibility of Earthly organisms evolving outside of Earth is not zero. The spores of Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032 underwent 18 months of exposure aboard the ISS and showed significant survival rates under simulated Martian atmospheric conditions, suggesting they could survive a journey to Mars. The question remains: can they also survive and evolve there?
Materials: colour print on aluminium 160cm x 140cm.
Photo – Audrey Rose Mizzi/ Spazju Kreattiv
Life on Mars might not want to be found (video) 2025
Full HD 6:18 min
@ Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, Paris (FR)