What does it mean to create life in a time when natural fertility is declining, and technological interventions are opening new pathways to reproduction?

Over the course of fifteen years, Irini Athanassakis has developed a multifaceted body of artistic work stemming from her personal exploration of (in)fertility, reproductive technologies, and motherhood. Drawings, photographs, texts, and objects made of wool, thread, clay, and silver come together in this book to form a sensitive dialogue on creation, loss, and transformation.

In collaboration with Nik Thoenen, who reinterprets and visually condenses the works, and photographer Josh Müller, an intimate panorama of artistic reflection unfolds. A literary contribution by Thomas Ballhausen complements this artistic inquiry, delving deeper into myths, fairy tales, and the liminal spaces between nature and culture.

POIESIS illuminates the shift from natural reproduction to technologically-mediated creation—a powerful testament to the coexistence of infertility and artificial reproduction in our contemporary world.