Universcience, an organisation that works to make science accessible to all, initially presented Microbiota, a touring exhibition based on Guilia and Jill Enders’ book Gut: the Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ, at the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie in Paris, France. Since its 2018 debut, the show has shared its insight into the depths of our bodies worldwide.
Following its first tour to Germany at Experimenta, Microbiota has been a part of the Atrium de Rouen’s Health Odyssey since February 2022 and will run through until October 2023. This experience brings together three different exhibitions, forming one mega-exhibition to educate visitors on the microscopic world, health research in France, and the secrets of the human body over a 1000 m2 display zone.
Alongside In My Body and Health in Normandy, Microbiota offers an inside look into our digestive system: its beauty, how it functions, and how we can leverage our knowledge gained through scientific research to improve our health. Overall, Health Odyssey brings together multiple research and educational presentations to improve visitors’ knowledge of their health and the way their bodies work.
Microbiota on tour
More recently, Microbiota opened as a traveling exhibition at the Bloomfield Museum in Jerusalem, Israel. Universcience president, Bruno Maquart, travelled to Jerusalem for the exhibition’s inauguration, which took place on 30 June 2023. In Jerusalem, the exhibition aims to offer a new look at the gut – a truly underappreciated organ.
Across three immersive exhibits, each one of which is accompanied by the whimsical characters and designs of Jill Enders, visitors get an inside look into their own insides.
The exhibition has seen some impressive visitor numbers during its tours. During the eight-month run in Paris, it was seen by 380,000 visitors. Following this, 81,165 people saw the exhibition in Lisbon, Portugal during an 11-month run. During the next tour stop, in Vantaa, Finland, it brought in 98,000 visitors in 12 months, and then over the course of five months in Heilbronn, Germany, it attracted 63,287 guests.
The current show, in Jerusalem, running from 30 June to 14 June, saw 64,545 visitors in the first two months alone. The total number of visitors for the 47 months that Microbiota has been on tour has reached 686,997.
Earlier this year, Universcience announced its latest travelling exhibition, Crowdology, the science of crowds. This looks at questions like what causes crowds, how can they be managed, and what similarities they have to the migration patterns of birds, amongst others.
Top image: Microbiota at the Atrium de Rouen’s Health Odyssey © D Jouxtel
