Karolina Żyniewicz (PL/DE) is a Berlin-based artist, researcher & educator, a liminal being, existing and performing between various contexts and disciplines. She is a graduate of the Faculty of Visual Arts of the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź and holds PhD in cultural sciences (obtained in the transdisciplinary program Nature-Culture at Artes Liberales Faculty, University of Warsaw).

ArtBomb Project: Self Defense

The inspiration for the Self Defense project is Noah Whiteman’s book Most Delicious Poison: The Story of Nature’s Toxins―From Spices to Vices, which shows how many organisms are capable of developing defensive strategies that we can use, humans, as poisonous safeguards.

I believe that in the current atmosphere of global threat and war, it is worth initiating a discussion about defense practices through the use of knowledge about nature. This kind of knowledge is not exempt from ethical considerations—like any other knowledge, it requires responsibility and caution. As Paracelsus said, “only the dose makes the poison".

In the Self Defense project, I’m interested in how plants considered poisonous use their toxins in their life cycles (in interspecies relationships), and how these toxins can be used—or misused—by humans.