A Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) is an organism whose genetic material has been altered through genetic engineering. Surrounded by media panic, regulation and fear of the unknown, the same anxieties persist: Are GMOs dangerous? Are they unethical? Or are we simply playing God, obsessed with controlling nature?

Imagine a greenhouse where strawberries grow on human blood.

Drawing from her experience of living with rare and severe allergies, Margherita stages an impossible intimacy between an allergic body and the plant it desires but cannot eat. In a fictional greenhouse, strawberry plants are nourished with the artist’s own blood. An attempt to bring the plant closer, to make it familiar, perhaps even compatible. A gesture somewhere between affection, manipulation and the desire to become part of another organism.

Borrowing from the fantasies surrounding genetic modification, the work blurs the boundaries between cultivation and transformation, care and control, as the strawberry grows through her blood and their bodies become entangled in an impossible pursuit of intimacy.

Nail prosthetics design: Moosje Hekstra
Costume design: Irina Djojoatmodjo
Glass technical assistance: Sander van den Wal
Photography: Anne Lakeman, Luc Wittebol, Skaiste Venckeviciute
Video: Anne Lakeman

Exhibited at: Paradise, The Hague (2025) and Mediamatic, Museumnacht Amsterdam (2026)