about

ABOUT MARGHERITA

I see art as way of knowledge production that brings artworks and thoughts to the world, interpenetrated into each other. My aim in not only to provoke, unsettle, or inspire awe, but to stir broader discussions about the way we (who is we?) are in the world.

I work across bioart and performance and also write a lot. My installations and performances with living matter, ecology and biotechnology address contemporary taboos like death, sex and vulnerability through a queer lens.

I have a stubbornly transdisciplinary background: in fact, I studied political sciences with a focus on environment, trained in new media and composition, am a plant geek and self-taught symbiotic and ecological observer. This allows me to make artworks and research that seamlessly weave bio(techno)logical components, hacking, composition and object making.

I see my work as a garden crawling with burnt soil, genetically edited bacteria, cells extracted from my body, sex hormones, microbial biofilm, bovine blood, slugs, growing plants and decomposing biological remains. In such a garden, I am only a guest.

My works regularly tour across established venues and independent spaces like iMAL (BE), Volkstheater Wien (AT), Kiasma Theatre (FI), Donaufestival (AT), Casa Viva (MX), Foundation L’Art Pur (SAU), Kunstquartier Bethanien (DE), Kapelica Gallery / Kersnikova (SI), KONTEJNER (HR), Bioart Society (FI), Ars Electronica (AT), Bandit Mages (FR), Art Laboratory Berlin (DE), Fields Institute for Matematial Research (CA). I was shortlisted for the Falling Walls Award / Category At and Science (2023) and received the Coal Prize / Transformative Territories Award (2024).

Collaborations across disciplines are an important part of my practice, including the performance group Fronte Vacuo and the exhibition Membranes Out Of Order. I am a member of the Finnish Bioart Society and the Queer Death Studies Network, and affiliated researcher of The Posthumanities Hub and the Eco- and Bioart Lab.

I hold a doctorate in Artistic Research at Aalto University on biological arts and queer theory. My publications cover arts, aesthetics, environmental humanities and queerfeminist studies, including Vulnerability as a Queer Art for Technoethics Arts (2022) and a chapter for the International Handbook of Queer Death Studies (Routledge, 2025).

Education

2023

Aalto University of Arts, Helsinki, FI

Practice-based doctorate in Artistic Research
Thesis adviser: Prof Helena Sederholm, Dr Marietta Radomska, Kira O’ Reilly
Pass with distinction

2014- 2015

Meisterschülerin

Berlin University of the Arts, Department of Arts and Media, Berlin

2007 – 2011

MFA, Audiovisual Composition

Conservatory “G. Tartini”, School of Music and New Technologies, Trieste, IT

2003 – 2006

BA, Political Sciences

University of Trieste, Faculty of Political Sciences, Trieste

Awards and Grants

2024

COAL PRIZE – Transformative Territories Winner

2023

Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year 2023 (Shortlist)

2019

European Media Art Platforms EMARE production grant

2018

Kone Research Grant, Finland
Digital Art Award, Romaeuropa Festival
Share Prize, Turin, Italy, Honorable Mention (2nd Prize)

2016

Visual Art Prize of Com. It. Es. Berlin 2016 / Berlin Committee of Italians Abroad

2012

Conservatory of Music Tartini, Triest, best final artwork accolade

2011

Premio Carajan per le arti visive, Trieste (shortlist)