This project reimagines body augmentations through biodegradable materials, exploring the tension between allure and discomfort. Using agar-agar derived from seaweed, the project recreates breast and buttock implants—typically concealed beneath the skin—to blur the boundaries between natural and artificial, beauty and the grotesque, freedom and control.

Developed by Raquel Sánchez Gálvez and Greta Desirèe Facchinato, the project emerged from a 2019 study on cosmetic surgery and medical silicone. While visually resembling silicone, the agar forms remain fragile and ephemeral, contrasting with the permanence of traditional body modifications.

Presented during the exhibition What’s a Body if Not a Shell at The Grey Space in The Middle, The Hague.

The material from this research, Agar agar, is featured in the Future Materials Bank and Materials Design Map.