Image: Sweat recollection with a glass tool in a Finnish sauna. Photo: Genietta Varsi

Genietta Varsi presents her previous work and the research in Tokyo as part of this years Tokyo Art & Science Research Residncy in hosted by BioClub Tokyo in collaboration with Finnish Institute in Japan. 

During her residency at at BioClub Tokyo, Genietta will research the connection between the body and the territory through salt. By harvesting salt from both human sweat and the Pacific Ocean, she explores the transition of fluid into crystal as a material history of the land. Mapping Tokyo’s buried rivers, Varsi will organize sweating encounters to bring the city’s hidden waters to the surface. She will research traditional Japanese salt-making processes, and will be working on laboratory techniques to grow salt crystals from sweat and seawater. Her work during this period will explore the boundaries between the microscopic world, the hidden flows and the city landscape.

Please note this event takes place at BioClub Tokyo in Japan and on Zoom.

Genietta Varsi is a Peruvian sculptor and researcher. Her practice explores the material relations between humans and their environments by handling biological and ecological activities as sculptural processes. She is interested in how our bodies are shaped by and shaping the spaces we inhabit. Working across sculpture, drawing, writing, video and participatory actions, she often creates shared social rituals that turn personal biological processes into public experiences. Her current research focuses on urban waters and bodily fluids, examining how these liquids move across membranes at different scales.

She holds an MA from Aalto University (Finland) and a BFA in Sculpture from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Her work has been exhibited at group exhibitions and film festivals across the Americas and Europe, including the 13th Bienal do Mercosul (Brazil, 2022). She has also presented her work in solo exhibitions in São Paulo, Prague, and Lima.