Bees, art and technology in the exhibition "Bee Devices"

AnneMarie Maes works on the interwoven threads of multi-media installations, ecological issues, and social and anthropological projects. The current line of work focuses on the ongoing Open-Greens project which sets up laboratories for urban gardening and bee colonies. 

Given the situation of bees and the catastrophic environmental consequences if they become extinct, this exhibition, which will travel around the world during 2015, aims to show not only the result of years of research with bees, but also to raise awareness about this problem both within the general population and the scientific community. 

The exhibition BEE DEVICES and other curious observations is the starting point of the presentation on the research and artistic work of AnneMarie Maes and the Brussels Urban Bee Lab. The work of AnneMarie Maes, media artist and beekeeper, started more than six years ago, and it is based on a rigorous research into bees.

AnneMarie Maes set up the Brussels Urban Bee Lab in 2009 and this artistic laboratory installed several instrumented beehives on garden roofs in the centre of Brussels.

The artists and technicians of Brussels Urban Bee Lab designed sophisticated equipment to monitor and measure the bee colonies, process the data and disseminate these via streaming.

This research has so far instigated a series of installations, objects, graphic works, sound works and workshops that were shown in galleries, festivals and public spaces. It induced an intense interaction with scientists and technologists, partly to build and install the measuring equipment but also to investigate the reasons for the urgent problem of bee colonies starting to die out in all industrialised countries.

The exhibition will be open until June 7, from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the lobby of CMIMA - (Pg Marítim de la Barceloneta 39-47, Barcelona). Admission is free.

Further information:  AnneMarieMaes.net