Smells Like Kin

Smells Like Kin, a sensory installation that explores the links between living beings through fermentation.

LABoral Art and Industrial Creation Centre (Gijón, Spain) presents Smells Like Kin, an installation by the international duo Sikau/Půbalová (Dr. Lea Luka Sikau and Denisa Půbalová) in collaboration with Felipe Lombó, a scientist from the University of Oviedo, which combines art and science to discover how Asturias’ fermentation culture can be experienced through the senses. The proposal offers an immersive experience around fermentation and its practices, both traditional and laboratory-based.

The exhibition, on view through May 2, 2026, brings into the gallery the results of the research carried out by the artists since March at LABoral as part of STUDIOTOPIA, a project co-funded by Creative Europe that promotes collaborations between art and science.

In the space, aromas move and settle, activating memories and bodily knowledge. At the centre of the installation, a suspended silicone membrane evokes the SCOBY, a living organism that ferments, binds and transforms. A composition with the vibration of pressing apples to make cider, recipes passed down orally, and the decomposition of matter recorded with hydrophones can be perceived in a series of sculptures arranged on the floor of the room.

Smells Like Kin proposes fermentation as a way of thinking and feeling the connection with the living, an essay on expanded relationships: bonds based on shared practices, mutual transformations and interspecies relations, questioning inherited ideas of belonging beyond the blood family.

Art and Science Fair
As part of the STUDIOTOPIA project, LABoral organizes the Art and Science Fair, (November 11–15) a series of workshops that combine creativity with curiosity, learning by doing, experimenting, and discovering. 

The first four days are focused on educational communities in Asturias, with more than 350 students participating in activities, workshops and talks designed to spark curiosity and creativity. On November 15, the Art and Science Fair is open to the general public, aged between 14 and 16 years old.

Studiotopia
STUDIOTOPIA is a project co-funded by the Creative Europe programme that runs from 2024 to 2027 and involves 11 European cultural and scientific institutions that aims to harness the creative synergy between artists and scientists to address a global issue: the Symbiocene. This concept, coined by eco-philosopher Glenn Albrecht, imagines a future in which humanity lives in harmony with the Earth and all its inhabitants, promoting mutual development and interconnection.

In this context LABoral opened a call for artists: “Eating Life. Collaborations between our bodies and other species”. A committee of experts —formed by scientific Dr. Felipe Lombó, artist and researcher María Castellanos and the association dedicated to research, communication, creation, and cultural production GRIGRI— selected the proposal by duo Sikau/Půbalová.

Advisory Committee: María Castellanos, Grigri Projects, Felipe Lombó

Composition: Ella Kay

Collaborators: Resin Pro Espana, Embutidos La Vega San Julián, Satori fermentos, Leticia Baselgas, Carla González Suárez & Mirta Morán (Sidra Ca Pericon), Do Bongers (Basic Theory), Ana Prendes, Danny Smink (Oersoep), Kshitija Mruthyunjaya (Henchu Cafe), Fundación Cabrales

Coproduction: LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Schemerlicht