Science has always been a fountain of processes, structure and knowledge. We have been making science since the beginning of our species. Observing our surroundings, experimenting, creating theories and accepting them, rejecting them after and circling around again. The threshold between science and art has been opaque since humanity came to its being. Creators and creations waltz along the same path of the unknown. Humans dive in scientific pursuits and artistic endeavors to find themselves and each other. Colombian photographer Juno, created a visual universe around that innate desire of finding oneself.
Juno´s project The Two Strands is a photographic archive that brings together concepts such as genes, mystery, human species, and self-knowledge. Unraveling the science behind it all, and the art behind that science. Juno parted from her own life experience to create this marvelous project: "From the genetic and emotional link that unites me to Manuela, my twin sister, I suggest a journey through the molecular and symbolic relationship that unites us as a species. The history of genetics is also presented to me as a source of reflections, ideas and triggers. In the Two Strands, I select certain events and characters that have contributed to deciphering the code that makes us human."
Juno experimented with different scientific and empirical knowledge to create a combination of thriving images that traverse human existence, through the lens of personal perception and experience. This journey started with Juno in 2019 when she started doing extensive research on her own genetics, moved by the amazement and curiosity behind her genes and the ones of her twin sister. She obtained her genetic profile with different establishments on Medellín and used her discoveries as moving and living pieces of her creation. Later in 2020 she started creating different portraits of homozygous twins in Medellin and nearby towns. Juno keeps on creating and estimates a closure for her project in 2022.
"The two strands bring together archival images of the study of genetics, diagnostic images of my genes and my twin, made thanks to the collaboration with research groups from the Universities of Medellín, as well as photographs of ovules, sperm and comet cells"
The usage of different scientific and artistic resources creates a neonic atmosphere full of layers of content, science, impressions and curiosities. Images moon over each other, forming and co-creating a constellation of mystery. Juno´s courage and need to uncover natural realities and dig into her own structure are fundamental to the essence of the project. It's not always easy to dive into the unknown, it's not easy to surrender to knowledge you are just permitted to accept, and have no power whatsoever over it. Not to change it, but to let it be. It's a different and avid approach, to see oneself through the lens of science.
© JUNO
This data obtained by her research turned into a multi-tonal visual experience that reminds us about our own origins, the identity that lies within us just waiting to be unveiled. Science has a way of showing not only our nature but the potentialities of it. Not just physical, but emotional and spiritual. In this thrilling project, science becomes a vessel for art and vice versa, both in a noble quest to find truth, beauty and that set of codes that makes us human.
