Julia von Stietencron: plots of art, science, and human perceptions

A journey from fashion to sensory transformation

After years of collaborating with major brands in the fashion industry, Julia has chosen to redesign her artistic path. Today, her works do not adorn bodies, but environments, offering immersive experiences that blend aesthetics, biology, and technology. Her works include large-scale textile sculptures and interactive textile environments designed to support well-being. Her passion for fabrics has never been merely material, but metaphorical: every thread she weaves seems to connect the invisible to the tangible, the microscopic to the universal.

The work of Julia von Stietencron is rooted in the idea that art can be a bridge between the body, mind, and environment. Her projects aim to stimulate imagination and promote a greater awareness of the interconnections between science, nature, and culture. The use of sustainable materials and artisanal techniques further underscores her commitment to responsible and conscious art.

Architecture and textiles: a dialogue that transforms spaces

The intersection between textile art and architecture represents another fascinating aspect of Julia's work. Her textile installations, with their ability to transform spaces, are perfectly suited to architectural contexts. The works not only engage with the surrounding environment but often reinvent it, creating atmospheres that stimulate the senses and promote well-being.

Her works blend into spaces as if they have always existed. Architecture and textiles converse, merge, complement each other. Her installations do not just decorate but transfigure the environments, creating atmospheres capable of welcoming and transforming those who experience them.

VID art|science: interaction between art and science

In 2011, Julia co-founded VID art|science, an international movement that is not just a platform for interdisciplinary collaborations, but a true creative laboratory. Here, artists and scientists work side by side. In her role as artistic director, she has led initiatives that explore the interactions between art, biology, and technology, demonstrating how these disciplines can collaborate to create transformative experiences.

The organization focuses on the idea that art can make complex scientific concepts understandable, while science can enrich artistic language and imagery.

Projects that challenge the imagination

Blood Morph: the visual language of blood
Imagine blood flow translated into pulsating lights and organic shapes. This multisensory installation, presented at the Genoa Science Festival, is a journey that makes the invisible visible, offering the audience a poetic insight into the workings of the human body. It represents the flow of blood through shapes, lights, and sounds.

Memories Network: weaving memories
Exhibited at MAMbo in Bologna, this work explores cellular memory with a unique sensitivity, using textile structures to represent neural networks and biological interconnections. Fabrics become neural networks, colors evoke dormant emotions, and the interaction between the audience and the artwork reveals stories that seem already written in our DNA.

Cell Melodies: symphonies for cells
In this visionary and performative experiment, which combines music, visual art, and biology, Julia collaborates with musicians and scientists to explore how sound can influence stem cells. The work is simultaneously a performance, research, and poetry.

#1 answer 
The first question I want to ask you is about anthroposophy, I know you are deeply familiar with it, how much has it influenced your artistic journey and in what way has it helped shape your vision?
Rudolf Steiner believed that art was a means through which human beings could express their spirituality and connect with the subtle world. In his principles, art is not just an aesthetic activity, but a process that can lead to a deeper understanding of reality and the human experience. In essence, art in anthroposophy is seen as a means of spiritual exploration and a way to express the interconnection between the individual and the cosmos. In this sense, anthroposophy has inspired and shaped me.

#2 answer
Your installations often transform architectural spaces. How do you conceive the relationship between fabrics, materials, and built environments?
Architectural space inspires me greatly. Any space speaks to me, and so I try to interact and work to make visible what I imagine for that space.
I feel like I collaborate with a space. I never impose art on a space a priori. Of course, there is the initial idea, but it bends and shapes to find a symbiosis with the environment.

#3 answer
The use of sustainable materials is a constant in your works. How do you select materials and what values guide your choices?
I always select materials that speak to me, that have a strong identity. They are not always sustainable, but often. Many times, I start with minimally processed fibers, just as nature created them. Nature is always a teacher for me. It always amazes me.

#4 answer
Your works seem to make the invisible visible. How does the creative process unfold from a scientific fact to an artistic experience?
With my works, I aim to raise questions about the human condition, seen both as a biological status and as a placement in the cosmos, exploring our spirituality and our relationships in society.
They are poetic reflections. I can be inspired by a scientific fact or I can make measurements and technologies interact with the artwork.

#5 answer
VID art|science is a unique platform. What are the most significant challenges and opportunities you have encountered in leading such an interdisciplinary project?
The greatest opportunity is being able to learn and engage in dialogue with people from different disciplines and to create art that responds and relates to our contemporaneity.

#6 answer
Cellular memory is a fascinating and complex theme. What discoveries have excited you the most during your research?
Memory itself is a fascinating and complex theme. Memory, both in a biological and personal context, plays a crucial role in the formation and expression of art. Past experiences, emotions, and accumulated influences become integral parts of an artist's identity and work.
Scientific discoveries at a molecular level teach me that our world relates in every way almost equally to the microscopic world of cells. In other words, there is no inner world detached from an outer world. It's all connected.
I have directed my latest installations precisely towards this reflection. Art evokes emotions in us, and our cells respond to these vibrations.

#7 answer 
We are almost at the end of the interview, in the editorial office we are all passionate about music, and it is one of the artistic languages that we privilege, would you like to tell us about three tracks that you are particularly attached to. Thank you.
Many musics accompany us throughout our lives. It starts with the voice of our parents, with rhythms and sounds that have accompanied or shaped us, with sounds that guide us through different moments or phases of our existence. I was born with music.
If I really have to mention three....Schubert, String Quartet No. 14, d-minor; Arvo Part, Fratres; Pergolesi, Stabat Mater....but I could go on with Gregorian chants, Buddhist chants, ToshiTsuchitori, Jomonko.....I'll stop here!