I am pleased to announce that Leonardo/Olats is supporting
the project “Trust Me, I’m an Artist: Towards an Ethics of
Art and Science Collaboration” led by British artist Anna
Dumitriu.
After Adam Zaretsky in Amsterdam, Neal White in London and
Anna Dumitriu in Dublin, Art Orienté Objet (Marion
Laval-Jeanted & Benoît Mangin) will propose, in front of an
audience, their project “Du cheval au panda…” to a specially
formed ethics committee (following the rules and procedures
typical for the host country).
The event takes place Thursday 31st May at 6:30pm in the
Salle des Actes, École normale supérieure, 45, rue d’Ulm
75005 Paris, France
The event is free, within seats limit.
Please be kind enough to confirm your presence to Annick
Bureaud : info [at]olats.org
Website: www.artscienceethics.com
Contact: Anna Dumitriu annadumitriu [at] hotmail.com
You will find below the full description of the overall
project “Trust Me, I’m an Artist: Towards an Ethics of Art
and Science Collaboration” and of the project "Du cheval au
panda" proposed by Art Orienté Objet.
Best
Annick Bureaud
******************
“Trust Me, I’m an Artist: Towards an Ethics of Art and
Science Collaboration”
“Du cheval au panda…” with Art Orienté objet (Marion
Laval-Jeantet & Benoît Mangin)
Date and time: Thursday 31st May at 6:30pm
Venue: The Salle des Actes, The École normale supérieure,
45, rue d’Ulm 75005 Paris, France
Website: www.artscienceethics.com
“Trust Me, I’m an Artist: Towards an Ethics of Art and
Science Collaboration” is an international project
investigating the new ethical issues raised by art/science
collaboration and the forthcoming event in Paris on 31st May
at 6:30pm, at the École normale Supérieure, will feature the
French duo Art Orienté objet. They will propose a new work
called ““Du cheval au panda…” to a panel of experts who will
consider the legal and moral issues that it raises and
consider the roles and responsibilities of the artists,
scientists and institutions involved. Art Orienté objet have
been creating works concerned with the environment,
trans-species relationships and the questioning of
scientific methods and tools since 1991.
At each “Trust me, I’m an artist” event (before a live
audience) an internationally known artist proposes an
artwork to a specially formed ethics committee (following
the rules and procedures typical for the host country), the
ethics committee then debates the proposal and comes to a
decision, the artist is then be informed of the ethics
committee’s decision and, alongside the audience, can enter
into a chaired discussion about the result.
Art Orienté objet’s performance Que le cheval vive en moi
(May the horse live in me) is an extreme, medical
self-experiment with a blood-brotherhood beyond species
boundaries. With this performance the French duo Art Orienté
objet calls for greater ecological responsibility from
humans, whose technologies increasingly instrumentalize
other animals and plants. The artist Marion Laval-Jeantet
has turned herself into a proverbial “guinea pig,” allowing
herself to be injected over the course of several months
with horse immunoglobulins (glycoproteins that function as
antibodies in immune response) and thus developing a
progressive tolerance to these foreign animal bodies. In
February 2011, having built up her tolerance, she was able
to be injected with horse blood plasma containing the entire
spectrum of foreign immunoglobulins, without falling into
anaphylactic shock—the intention being that the horse
immunoglobulin would by-pass the defensive mechanisms of her
own human immune system, enter her blood stream to bond with
the proteins of her own body and, as a result of this
synthesis, have an effect on all major body functions.
Immunoglobulins are biochemical messengers that control, for
example, the glands and organs of the endocrine system,
which is also closely tied to the nervous system, so that
the artist, during and in the weeks after the performance,
experienced not only alterations in her physiological rhythm
but also of her consciousness, characterized by heightened
sensibility and nervousness. After the transfusion, Marion
Laval-Jeantet, on stilts, performed a communication ritual
with a horse before her hybrid blood was extracted and
freeze-dried. This risky undertaking alludes to the
possibility of healing autoimmune diseases using foreign
immunoglobulins as therapeutic “boosters.” Here, as the
artists maintain, “the animal becomes the future of the
human.” As a radical experiment whose long-term effects
cannot be calculated, Que le cheval vive en moi questions
the anthropocentric attitude inherent to our technological
understanding. Instead of trying to attain “homeostasis,” a
state of physiological balance, with this performance, the
artists sought to initiate a process of “synthetic
transi-stasis,” in which the only constant is continual
transformation and adaptation. The performance represents a
continuation of the centaur myth, that human-horse hybrid
which, as “animal in human,” symbolizes the antithesis of
the rider, who as human dominated the animal.
Due to the high symbolic value of this animal, the duo would
like to reenact the performance, this time with the panda.
This performance would be entitled « May The Panda Live in
me ». This is this scenario they introduce to the Ethics
Committee.
The aim is to reveal the mechanisms that drive this usually
hidden process which behind scientific research decisions,
enabling the wider public to understand the driving forces
behind ethical decision making and the role of artists
working in scientific settings more deeply. Other events in
the series have featured projects by Adam Zaretsky, Neal
White and Anna Dumitriu.
The project “Trust Me I’m an Artist: Towards an Ethics of
Art/Science Collaboration” is led by artist Anna Dumitriu in
collaboration with Professor Bobbie Farsides (Chair of
Ethics, Brighton and Sussex Medical School) in collaboration
with the Waag Society and The University of Leiden.
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