Travelling exhibition: The Genius of the Bees

The exhibition “The Genius of the Bees” immerses the public in the life of the bees, in the light of the latest scientific discoveries.

By Éric Tourneret

22 horizontal panels measuring 210 x 100 cm mounted on 11 wooden, easel-type structures with 42 ground screws for an outdoor installation on a lawn.

“The Genius of the Bees” exhibition presents new, breathtaking photos taken within the heart of the bee colonies, in France and throughout the world, as though created in a laboratory, all backed by a text full of fascinating information which, through the quality of the writing and the soundness of the documentation, will make a lasting impression on the visitor.

Visitors will see how the colony, the “superorganism”, is organized in terms of its democracy, its decision making and the communication between the bees; the manner in which it combats disease and how the bees respond to external or internal events and how they regulate the colony’s temperature.

They will understand how the bees go about choosing their queen, which epigenetic transformation takes place and the true nature of the nuptial flight, They will learn about the silent call of the flowers, the alchemy of the nectar, the importance of the fragrances and the royal scent, how the taste of salt can be found at the tip of the bees’ legs, the role of the scout bees and the function of the compound eye.

They will discover the influence of the architecture on the bees’ communication and that of the empty spaces within the honey comb, the existence of a web amongst the bees, the multiplicity of languages and the reason for the colony’s respiration, the bees’ incredible cognitives capacities and their four memories, the conditions of the colonizing swarming and the secrets of genetics.