Dorotea Dolinšek's artistic investigation of life in radical conditions of outer space, as well as of deeply wounded planet Earth, continues by assembling a wearable as a life support system. The project derives from an object of a spacesuit, which is hereby understood as a heavily technologized capsule, representing humans’ ultimate interiorisation as well as isolation from the Earthly environment. However, what makes human presence in outer space possible is the symbiotic coexistence with the non-human, one's personal microbiome. This vessel of organisms, interconnected with the human body, is challenged by radical outer space conditions to which the somatic body shows more physiological plasticity than its microbiome. Relative sterility inside this wearable architecture is one of the factors that compromises balance among the silent non-human cast of space travellers, leading to dysbiosis. Dolinšek tackles the challenge of dysbiosis by acknowledging everything that inhabits her, tapping into her own skin microbiome and producing microbial inoculant, used for plant growth promotion. In Biosymbiotic Exoskeleton, Dolinšek strives to draw attention to our microbiome as an organ that is of great importance for our survival, not only in an ontological sense but also in a very personal – intimate sense. Being alive means being in symbiosis with non-human living systems that extend way beyond the physical limits of the human body.

At the exhibition in Zagreb, Dorotea Dolinšek presents the first iteration of the project – an infographic about the process, with the biological part presented within petri dishes with specially designed cooling systems.