It is fascinating to see how the rich and diverse world of tiny creatures like insects, reptiles, and vermin affects so many aspects of human culture. We domesticate insects, use them to decorate our habitat, utilize them and their products for our needs, regulate their activity to help cultivate our crops and lead our lives alongside them, sometimes in complete disregard and other time in true symbiosis.

Musca depicta, which means “painted fly” in Latin, is a symbolic motif that gained popularity in Dutch and Northern Renaissance painting in the 15th century. Depicting a fly on or around a portrait symbolized the worthy and significant in the smallest of God’s creations. In the following centuries, this developed into a tradition of painting insects on flower arrangements, as well as worms emerging out of plump apples or various delicacies. The presence of the small critters that gnaw away at the still life and the cultural order signified the eternal nature of art versus the ephemeral painted – and painting body. Indeed, throughout the history of both Western and Eastern art, insects have inspired many artists who marveled at their appearance and unusual behavior. The artistic focus on these creatures reflects their prominence in our world – not only in science, industry, and agriculture, but as a part of our everyday life environment.

This year, the 23rd Musrara Mix Festival features performances, audio-visual displays, video works, music, noise and new music shows, robotics and interactive art that present the possibility to look at the world, even if for a moment, through the different and strange eyes of insects. The works draw on the extensive and disturbing history of creepy crawlies that come out of the dark, address the new ecological reality that requires that we understand how the flapping of a butterfly’s wings affects us, and examine the relationship between the individual and the group, the micro and macro, nocturnal and daytime life. Over the three days of the festival, the participating artists will weave new expressions of our relationship with the fantastical world of insects.