Biodome: An Experiment in Diversity

BIODOME: An Experiment in Diversity is comprised of three specially commissioned projects by Gustavo Artigas, Laleh Mehran and Chris Coleman, and Seth Wulsin and offers the unique opportunity to engage in the artists’ visual representations of how Boulder residents experience diversity. The exhibition was conceived in response to a survey conducted by the City of Boulder in 2007 as part of its Community Dialogue. According to the survey’s participants, Boulder residents value an outdoor, active lifestyle in a spectacular natural environment that they want to preserve and protect. At the same time, they are concerned that Boulder is becoming an elitist community, intolerant of those who are different and with little room for people of modest or middle class means.

Taking these findings as a starting point, BMoCA invited four artists – Artigas, Mehran, Coleman, and Wulsin – to address the concerns and hopes expressed by the local community. The artists completed residencies in Boulder to conduct research and collect ideas before responding to this creative challenge in strikingly different ways. Each of the three resulting projects addresses a topic of special interest to the Boulder community: sports, technology, and spirituality. Artigas, Coleman, Mehran, and Wulsin bring a diverse set of backgrounds and life experiences to the project, bridging North and South America and the Middle East. Their unique points of view and distinct art making practices introduce unexpected nuances to their interpretations and suggested solutions.

The term “biodome” refers to a closed ecological system with complete control over all biological and climatic conditions within a geographically defined, sealed-off area. Since the 1960s, there have been numerous attempts to create such self-sustaining environments, including BIOS-3 in Siberia and Bioshere2 in Arizona, but none was able to control the introduction of outside species and to maintain the system’s internal balance in the long run. In a natural setting a healthy ecosystem is characterized by considerable biodiversity, where a high level of varied life forms indicates greater health.

With its self-identified homogeneity and expressed wish to be more welcoming and diverse, the city of Boulder is the place for another kind of experiment. BMoCA invites its visitors to actively participate in BIODOME: An Experiment in Diversity by adding their voices and their unique contributions to the proverbial “Boulder Bubble.”