Biosphere III was a large-scale performance installation that took place in an old power plant outside of Oslo in the winter of 1990. It was inspired by the ongoing pseudoscientific project Biosphere II in the Sonora desert outside of Tucson, Arizona. In this replica of the earth, eight "Biospherians" were about to get sealed in a gigantic greenhouse where they were supposed to stay and survive for two years. The utopian idea was that the biosphere would create a self-supporting ecosystem that would generate its own oxygen and food. In the long perspective this "Noah's arc" would be able to carry human species to other planets where they could settle and build intergalactic colonies. 

In our inverted biosphere, the viewer was invited into a huge slowly inflating tent. Through windows they could follow the activity on the outside of the sphere. There, two machinists revealed different dystopian dioramas ranging from a mechanical greenhouse to melting ice monoliths. After a while the machinists made their way into the main sphere through a series of inflated air locks and lead screens. Inside the sphere the machinists attacked the four minimal copper boxes with torches and released their air bag like insides. The transformation of the sphere was complete when the flower patterned plastic bubbles had filled up with air.

Adjacent to the Biosphere III the audience could visit the "lab" where a series of polyester capsules with inflated airbags were on display.

Performed and constructed in collaboration with Gallery Riis, Oslo, 1990.