An Adaptive Moment

PASSAGES INSOLITES

A strange specimen is proliferating wildly on the surface of Bassin Louise. The inflatable installation represents and magnifies the anatomical details of rotifers, microscopic creatures with fascinating biological adaptations. When they sense predators, rotifers dry out so they can be swept to safety by the wind. And as they travel, they absorb the DNA of nearby species and recombine it with their own, ensuring the survival of the species while scattering their own DNA.

Un étrange spécimen surplombe les eaux du Bassin Louise. L’installation gonflable reprend et magnifie les détails anatomiques du rotifère, un organisme microscopique ayant la capacité de s’assécher et de s’envoler au vent pour esquiver des prédateurs. En déplacement, il emprunte et absorbe l’ADN d’espèces environnantes pour réagencer le sien et assurer ainsi sa propre survivance. Cette créature d’exception aux formes surréelles pourrait nous en apprendre beaucoup sur les vertus transformatrices de l’adaptabilité et de la résilience devant l’adversité.

Bdelloid Rotifers are fascinating creatures, evolutionary mysteries that survive through endurance and adaptation. When the rotifer is attacked by predatory fungus it dries up and is carried away in the wind to a new environment. During this strange journey the rotifer not only escapes its predator but it actually can rework it’s DNA, allowing it to adapt to it’s surroundings. This is one reason there are so many fascinating and surreal forms of this nano animal. The rotifers resting in the port invite the viewers to admire their forms. These creatures learn from their travel, and as we watch them resting in the port we humans must learn from the rotifer that we also can adapt and change in response to our environment

An Adaptive Moment was on display in the Louise Basin in Quebec City from June 2021 to October 2021 as part of PASSAGES INSOLITES by Ex Muro.