Being Human exhibition, Wellcome Collection

A new permanent gallery space entitled Being Human is opening at Wellcome Collection this September. The gallery aims to explore four areas of what of it means to be alive in these uncertain times. The new space will be divided into themes examining genetics, minds and bodies, infection and climate breakdown with around 50 artworks from a diverse selection of artists.

The section on genetics will include a project by artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg in which she extracted DNA from cigarette butts, hair and chewing gum found on the streets of New York. The genetic information was then analysed and used to build speculative, but extremely convincing, portraits with a 3D printer.

Heather Sewey-Hagborg, Stranger Visions, 2012 - 2013, © Courtesy of the artist and Fridman Gallery

In the context of minds and bodies artist Deborah Kelly explores identity and how we want to be perceived. For her artwork she photographed a group of willing participants naked and asked what they wanted others to know about them. The final collaged images represents the sitter’s unique experiences, from surgical procedures to addiction. A new image will be added every year.

Our attitudes towards infection and how this affects our relationship with other people is explored by American artist Kia LaBeija, who was born with HIV. At this exhibition you will be able to see her defiant self-portrait where, dressed ready for her high school prom, she stares into the camera as a doctor takes her blood during a routine appointment.

The final part of the exhibition is to examine climate change and will include a short film by artist collective Superflex. Flooded MacDonald’s presents us with a life-sized replica of the eponymous fast food chain as it fills with water, a reminder of the consumer-driven harm done to the environment and the part large corporations play in the state of the planet. There will also be piece acquired from Yinka Shonibare's Refugee Astronaut series. Shonibare, whose Ship in a Bottle occupied the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2010, is known for his life-size mannequins dressed in Nigerian batik fabrics, often set in tableaus that comment on colonialism and globalisation.

The new gallery space has been designed by award winning collective Assemble, who are used to taking on socially-minded projects, combining art, deign and architecture in a holistic way making them the perfect choice for a museum that examines nothing in isolation.

Opens 5 September.