There’s a reason we talk about “gut instinct.” About 100 trillion microbes live in our gut alone—thats 10x more than the number of microbes inhabiting the rest of our body—and they represent as many as 5,000 different microbial species.(1) That’s why Good Bacteria’s rotating synbiotic invites us to rewild our guts with a blend of prebiotics, probiotics, and a postbiotic that changes each week. Our guts are an ecosystem that is shifting, evolving, and adapting with every bite of food we eat. Far from a clean, blank slate, the human gut is a multispecies garden.
To celebrate the living landscape of healthy guts, Good Bacteria transformed a storefront in Los Angeles’ Venice neighborhood into an immersive “gut garden,” inviting visitors to feel the power of biodiversity. Against the sterile visual language of modern wellness, the Rewilding Lab transforms Good Bacteria’s science—restoring microbial diversity in the gut—into a sensory, embodied experience that can be walked through, tasted, touched, and felt.
The Rewilding Lab is “a return to our natural rhythms, to nature and biodiversity,” Anabel González, founder and CEO of Good Bacteria shared. “Modern wellness has become overly controlled and sterile, a departure from the body. The microbiome is the opposite: alive, wild, adaptive, a vast ecosystem constantly in interaction with everything. We wanted the installation to reflect that shift, moving away from control and into a world that is living and biodiverse.”
The space guides visitors through a quiet transformation, from clinical beige to vibrant microbial life, from depletion to nourishment, and from rigidity to flow. Working with ecological art studio Padma Earth (led by Kyna Payawal) and floral artist Brittany Asch of Brrch Floral, a plant landscape gradually overtakes aluminum tables and laboratory-like shelving, while fermenting botanicals in glass vessels line the walls. A section of the installation becomes harvestable, allowing guests to gather living plants and arrange small take-home botanicals, a gesture that mirrors the act of tending one’s inner ecosystem. Throughout the weekend, the garden was continually replenished in a soft, performative rhythm.
“Rewilding Lab draws inspiration from the parallels between soil and gut health — both living ecosystems that thrive through biodiversity, care, and balance,” Kyna Payawal of Padma Earth reflects. “[Anabel and I] share a belief that resilience comes from rewilding both our inner and outer environments — reconnecting with nature, with each other, and with the living systems that support the health of our bodies, our communities, and the planet.”
The installation launched with a private dinner created in collaboration with slo slo and Chef Charlie Ann Max before opening to the public. Workshops for guests included fermentation with Picklé (Jessica Wang), Chinese Medicine Herbal Tea with Dr. Natazia Stolberg, and a custom Good Bacteria sparkling herbal tea by Solarc
References:
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4191858/