More Women on Volcanoes

More Women on Volcanoes is an exhibition experimenting with sculpture, painting and scent by Shift Entity, in collaboration with Tatiana Vejic and Max Gunther Denis. 

Basing themselves on Donna Haraway’s notion of the Thick Present, which suggests that the past, present, and future are intrinsically entangled—coexisting not in a linear progression but in a deeply interwoven manner—Shift Entity create a narrative where immortality, or in other words the survival of species, does not depend on transhumanism, specism or the search for youthful rejuvenation. Rather, survival is achieved by the complete abandonment of the body, through hybridization with the environment and beyond. 

For More Women on Volcanoes, Shift Entity builds on the story of Katia Krafft, a French volcanologists and filmmaker who was passionate about studying and documenting active volcanoes, alongside her partner Maurice Krafft.The couple often came close to death on their excursions, and sadly in June 1991, they perished in a massive pyroclastic flow. Witnesses who found their bodies reported that they had not tried to escape the approaching magma. There are many records of the Kraffts saying that they knew their passion would take them one day or another, that it was their destiny to die close to what they loved most.  Within Shift Entity’s rewriting, Katia and Maurice Krafft anticipated their succumbing on volcanic ground, resulting in the couple  developing a scientific project called permaSHIFT. This experiment consisted of studying the natural ability of pyrophytic plants to grow after extreme heat, fires or eruptions and applying their regeneration protocol through hybridisation to their existence.

In her laboratory, Katia developed a way to translate her consciousness into K. Reacting to the stimuli around her, K is a self-referential structure or organism that generates itself, inspired by the cyber programme Quine Relay, copying systems found in nature. She becomes, as theorised by Haraway, a cyborg. Six petals that form the being of K are mirrored in those of the pyrophytic fire lily.  

This chapter at 019 allows for sculpture, painting and scent to adopt an original form that translates into a prototype, reflecting what Katia experimented on in her laboratory. Scent is directly linked to memory. This prototype is inspired by cryptobiosis, a biological state of ‘near death’ in which an organism suspends its metabolism in order to survive in hostile conditions, revealing a new dimension of resilience and transformation. Tatiana Vejic and Max Gunther Denis are invited to enrich the narrative around K, the central character whose scientific hybridisation continues to evolve. 

Vejic allows for a frame within which to place the narrative. Fusing with the earth’s crust, the lithosphere itself, K becomes the ductile material that in turn reacts and interacts with the heat of the surroundings. For this exhibition, Vejic reffered to a scientific methodology, studying in detail the different pigment compositions that she utilised.  Shift Entity and Denis collaborated on the conceptualisation of the scents present in the exhibition. Experimenting with textile, Denis developed spatial diffusion strategies for More Women on Volcanoes. 

K is an organism—she exist to communicate and scent becomes her language.  Working with a palpable reality, Shift Entity, Vejic and Denis create a temporary condition, allowing for a self-projection to a different realm of existence.

More Women on Volcanoes by Shift Entity is presented in two parts: the first chapter taking place at 019 in Ghent in December 2024 and the second at KOMPLOT in Brussels in June 2025. This project is the a collaborative initiative between Komplot and 019, connecting the different artistic scenes in Brussels and Flanders and sharing their knowledge and skills in relation to exhibition making. The project was initiated by an invitation from curators Thibaud Leplat and Camille Van Meenen.