Ghost Orchid

Excellent at adapting to niche environments, orchids are highly specialised and create singular forms responding to their ecosystems. The ghost orchid is a rare species that has preoccupied the minds of botanists and creatives alike. Marcin’s unique Ghost Orchid sculptures, carefully modelled in a digital environment, recreate the breeding process that once obsessed his maternal grandfather—a flower breeder. Made with 3D-printed PLA derived from corn starch, the sculptures are prone to gradual degradation, just like the space around them.

Thanks to a partnership with the Łukasiewicz Institute for Engineering of Polymer Materials and Dyes in Toruń, Poland, which developed custom bioreactors and a specially devised cocktail of enzymes and bacteria that stimulate biological decomposition, the show proves PLA's biodegradability, compostability, and sustainability. The “POL-KOMP bio-based product accelerating the decomposition of biodegradable polymeric materials in compost” was developed in the frame of the LIDER XII competition organised by the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBiR), agreement no. LIDER/48/0247/L-12/NCBR/2021.

Marcin Rusak (b. 1987, Warsaw, PL) is an artist and multidisciplinary designer interested in the ideas of value, ephemerality, and aesthetics. Specializing in storytelling, process and material investigation, his work incorporates research, object, installation and visual creations to explore overlooked details of our lives. As the son and grandson of flower growers, he has been fascinated by natural sources of inspiration and decoration. Engaging them in his creative process began by reusing waste to investigate new decorative elements within everyday objects and led to a rich body of work ranging from research and storytelling to cultural criticism around consumption and future scenarios.