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LABORATOIRE. Sous l’antre de la Chambre stérile [LABORATORY. In the Shelter of the Sterile Chamber] constitutes the culmination of work that Annie Thibault embarked on during a residency at the Instituto de Biología Molecular of Barcelona. The laboratory becomes her studio, where she works with living substances, namely, fungal cultures (yeast, mould) in a creative context. Suspended from the ceiling, the hung version of the Fairy Ring installation draws its inspiration from certain exobiological theories stating that life originated from stardust (spores) deposited on the Earth by dew. The title alludes to the circular formation that certain mushroom colonies assume as they grow in the shadows of underbrush. The two works establish links between the macrocosm and the microcosm. As with all her work, these two pieces combine aesthetic and scientific questioning and borrow the arsenal of the microbiologist: agar-agar, flasks, microorganisms, and so on. Annie Thibault draws with fungal and bacterial cultures, using Petri dishes, glass beakers and wax moulds to create installations that reflect her desire to work with living matter, in order to create worlds that exist at the crossroads of the artist's studio, the natural history museum and the laboratory.

The two works, executed and presented following a residency at the Fundacio Rafael Tous d’art contemporaini METRÒNOM (located in Barcelona, Spain), were done in conjunction with the molecular biology laboratory of the University of Barcelona.