Hatchery means a breeding place an incubator, a nursery, a place for transformation. Oysters are edible matter imbued with vitality. They are a precious coastal resource, harvested for centuries by indigenous cultures and honored in ceremonial offerings and cosmological rituals. Their unique ecological value extends beyond their living form, as dead oyster shells replenish and purify waterways.

One of the components in Jenny Marketou’s installation The Hatchery conceived for The House of Challenging Orders is a mount, a mixture made out of dead oysters shells, sand, and oysters powder, used for centuries among aboriginal cultures and across coastal regions as both a building material, a natural ecological barrier as well as building oyster reefs. Marketou uses “Oysters ”in her work as a force, an “actant” (Bruno Latour), to articulate the active powers of materials that intervene upon historical and ecological trajectories. What would happen if we looked at this “oyster ecosystem” as an “actant” upon our collective histories, containing its own narrative power and agency as well as an agent for replenishing and purifying waters? During the workshop participants are encouraged to mix these materials with water and plaster to create their own “Tabby” mixture which will be poured into a rubber mold modeled after an imaginary oyster species, fabricated through 3D printing, which are becoming part of the existing ecosystem. Meanwhile, a discussion will take place about rethinking our connection with the waterways, the water species, and our environment.

Register at registration@viennaartweek.at with the reference “Jenny Marketou”.