The Metabolic Guide to Space Survival at the exhibition Sheltering in Space – A Guide

Biennale d’Architettura in Venice: Sheltering in Space - a Guide

May 10 – July 31, 2025

The Metabolic Guide to Space Survival: a holographic projection of Mira Kordan sheltering in space © Astrid Preisz, acib GmbH

Art and science collaboration: the makers of The Metabolic Guide to Space Survival © Astrid Preisz, acib GmbH

The Metabolic Guide to Space Survival at the exhibition Sheltering in Space – A Guide

Liftoff from the #UniversePavilion at #Biennale2025 in Venice! UniVie joins Chief Bioengineer Mira Kordan to boldly go where no one has gone before.

What does it take to sustain human life on a long journey through deep space? Could fungi form the backbone of a self-sufficient life support system? Artist Kristina Pulejkova, in collaboration with the scientists Diethard Mattanovic (BOKU), Matthias Steiger (TU Wien), and Jürgen Zanghellini (UniVie) and supported by acib GmbH, explores this bold vision. Her multidisciplinary project The Metabolic Guide to Space Survival is now on view at the Universe Pavilion of the Venice Biennale.

Kristina Pulejkova’s artwork The Metabolic Guide to Space Survival invites us to reflect on a pressing question: how might humanity sustain itself on long-duration space journeys? To answer, we step into a life-size tunnel replicating the interior of the starship Möbius, where a holographic projection of Chief Bioengineer Mira Kordan floats through laboratory spaces and living quarters.

Her fictional guidebook, written from aboard the Möbius at age 75, lays out how to establish microbial-based life support systems and develop DIY medical solutions—transforming advanced bioengineering into a hands-on survival toolkit. Highlights include a fully developed three-course microbial menu and a vivid yellow suitcase filled with essentials: sourdough starters, a gene gun, and a zero-gravity bioreactor to kickstart life support far from Earth.

And what if we replace "space" with "Earth"? Then the question becomes an urgent inquiry into the sustainability of human life in the face of future challenges on our own planet. By blurring the lines between science fiction and reality, Pulejkova’s work not only showcases cutting-edge research but also challenges us to consider the ecological, ethical, and philosophical stakes of human expansion.

This installation is part of the exhibition Sheltering in Space – A Guide, curated by Claudia Schnugg. The exhibition brings together architectural models, speculative design, performance, and art to explore how we create refuge—physically, socially, and imaginatively. It asks us to rethink how we make a place for ourselves—and to envision the forms of shelter we might need in uncertain futures.

The exhibition opens opens May 10 and runs through June 30, 2025, at the Universe Pavilion, as part of the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2025.

Sheltering in Space – A Guide

Sheltering in Space – A Guide explores the full spectrum of what it takes to inhabit planetary or off-world environments. From visible structures and proposed construction methods using local extraterrestrial materials to the often invisible systems that support life — air, water, energy, communication — the exhibition reveals intertwined physical and conceptual layers of a shelter. © Astrid Preisz, acib GmbH

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