Ralo Mayer’s cross-media work derives its form from a process-oriented mode of artistic knowledge-generation. This artist’s main motifs include the investigation of narrative structures, the study of miniature universes and the interweaving of fiction and reality.

The exhibition entitled ... traveling through Biosphere 2, or: Anastylosis of Follies presents two related large-scale installations that emerge from Mayer’s research into Biosphere 2. This construction, erected in the desert near the town of Oracle in Arizona and initiated by Space Biosphere Ventures, was the first large-scale closed ecosystem, the idea being to later apply this to closed space colonies. Although a milestone in this new scientific area, the experiments were soon perceived by the media and the wide public as a failure. Inside Biosphere 2 the inhabitants had to contend successively with a shortage of oxygen and food and split into two fractions, mirrored by even severe complications in the management outside, which soon lead to the abandonment of the original ideas behind the project.

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