Manna: Epigenetics, Conflict and Intergenerational Trauma
Anna Dumitriu, Cécile Bourne-Farrell, and Rachel Kerr

Summary

Artist Anna Dumitriu, curator Cécile Bourne-Farrell and historian Rachel Kerr discuss “Manna,” an artwork that links epigenetics, conflict and intergenerational trauma. Dumitriu begins by tracing her bioart practice — humanoid robots, plague dresses, CRISPR-modified bacteria and Brighton beach sculptures — before describing a residency at the Helmholtz Zentrum in Munich, where she learns about chromatin and cellular memory. Working with scientists, she asks whether stem cells remember their previous identities after being reprogrammed into neuronal, heart, liver and lung cells and back again. This leads to the “Manna” sculpture, a 3D-printed assemblage of tulip bulbs, spoons and famine foods impregnated with DNA from the PIM3 gene associated with the Dutch Hunger Winter, exhibited in Bengaluru to invoke parallel histories of colonial famine. Rachel Kerr explains how the project illuminates the bodily impact of trauma, the transgenerational transmission of suffering and the concept of post-memory, while Cécile Bourne-Farrell reflects on the curatorial value of giving material form to scientific ideas and contested histories. The conversation shows how art can make epigenetic and historical violence accessible, opening difficult conversations about starvation as a weapon of war, colonial memory and the ways trauma is inherited.

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