book – The National Publishing House “Yantarny Skaz” – ISBN 5740608537
In order to find its autonomy, Bio Art (a term described by Jens Hauser, curator of the “L’Art Biotech” exhibition, as an “etymological disgrace”) is passing through the necessary evolutionary phases towards a complete definition, conquering a conceptual autonomyindependent from the means used. The image that comes to mind is that of a ‘chimera’, a hybrid creature that is a mix of different species, which expresses a peculiar compositive coherence, both paradoxical and efficient. The facets implied by dirtying one’s own hands with the basic elements of organic material (genes, cells, proteins, etc.) are many, as is analyzing the female body as a contemporary technological leboratory (in the performances by the subROSA collective), conceptually challenging the current eugenic development models, or the application of the usual schemes of knowledge hoarding, as is done by Eugene Thacker with his Open Source DNA. The ferment created by the Critical Art Ensemble and Eduardo Kac can now be recognized by filtering the media flow of relevant announces by the industry, made here byRicardo Dominguez, or reconstructed through the reflections on clones and their mediatic reproductions by Birgit Richard. This way, it’s possible to feel the pulse of the silent conflict surrounding these subjects. In times when human intervention on organic creatures is as big as what nature does in decades, and building life is a fact, the definition of shared critical positions becomes the social fulcrum the cultural development of these technologies revolves around.