Your Kidney Supermarket

In her installation Your Kidney Supermarket and the Web project xeno.bio.lab (2003), Shilpa Gupta (India) gloomily portrays an image of a future global organ trading system in which moral concerns have no place. In this candy-coloured world organs are becoming goods whose trade is based on capitalist principles. The bizarre and uncontrolled consumer greed of the first world, often concealed by a utopia of benevolent globalisation, is exposed by the artworks' pretty showcases, in which 'take-away' kidneys are waiting for their customers, and luxurious offers are available online for medical tourism. Visitors are informed about organ trade routes, reminiscent of colonial times, as well as the life-history of donors, who sell their organs for financial reasons.