BITCH, I EVOLVED!

“BITCH, I EVOLVED!” adopts a feminist perspective on a wide range of evolutionary theories, examines their origins, and asks which bodies are absent from mainstream narratives, which forms of reproduction have been omitted, and which myths were never written down. Recent research from evolutionary biology, zoology, gender studies and the history of science shows how strongly the focus on the male body from a male perspective has shaped narratives about origins, reproduction, sexuality and the body – and how much the evolution of the female and non-binary body has been marginalised or distorted. Current lines of research describe life instead as a web of interdependencies and emphasise social and cultural influences. How individuals interact, how communities organise themselves, and what role distributions exist can be decisive for evolutionary adaptations. Thus, permeable models that conceptualise evolutionary developments as intersectional relationships are replacing outdated paradigms such as “survival of the fittest”.

What do we really know about our origins and the evolutionary processes that have shaped us? What ways of thinking, hierarchies and social gender constructs shape the scientific understanding of our evolutionary origins? Why is the evolution of the female body absent from many narratives? How did the first uterus, breasts and vulvas come about? Why is the human a mammal and does not lay eggs like 99% of all animal species?

Eva Meyer-Keller is a Berlin-based choreographer whose approach is characterised by a constructive disregard for genre boundaries (visual arts, performing arts, academia). Her work is characterised by meticulous attention to detail and the use of everyday objects. Before graduating in dance and choreography from the SNDO in Amsterdam (1999), she studied photography in Berlin and London. Her numerous works include “Death is certain”, which has been performed at more than 250 venues worldwide since 2002. Since 2017, she has explored scientific models in performances such as “Some Significance”, “Living Matters”. and “Out of Mind”, documenting her research in artistic publications, such as “LM: M-M-A-E”, “Give me your bones”, and “Scores of Matters”. Together with the feminist exploration of female ageing “Turn the P/age” (2025), “BITCH, I EVOLVED!” can be read as a continuation of research that seeks ways to renegotiate culturally entrenched narratives about the body, gender, and time.