LOCAL & CONTACTOS
INÍCIO HOME
INFO
INSIDETV
VIVA CIÊNCIA
TWITTER
[arte e ciência]
[art and science]
Cordoaria [Lisboa]
< back
24 de Setembro a 24 de Novembro
Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr
September 24 to November 24
'09
Artist's Homepage
Pig Wings
Porcos Alados
Advances in bio-medical technologies such as tissue engineering, xenotransplantation, and genomics promise to render the living body as a malleable mass. The rhetoric used by private and public developers as well as the media have created public anticipation for less than realistic outcomes. The full effects of these powerful technologies on the body and society have, in most cases, only superficially discussed. Winged bodies (both animal and human) have been used in most cultures and throughout history. Usually, the kind of wings represented the creature (chimeras) as either good/angelic (bird-wing) or evil/satanic (bat-wing). There is yet another solution to flight in vertebrates which seems to be mostly free of cultural values - that of the Pterosaurs. We have used tissue engineering and stem cell technologies in order to grow pig bone tissue in the shape of these three sets of wings. The Pig Wings installation presents the first ever wing shaped objects grown using living pig tissue. This absurd work presents some serious ethical questions regarding a near future where semi-living objects (objects which are partly alive and partly constructed) exists and animal organs will be transplanted into humans.
Advances in bio-medical technologies such as tissue engineering, xenotransplantation, and genomics promise to render the living body as a malleable mass. The rhetoric used by private and public developers as well as the media have created public anticipation for less than realistic outcomes. The full effects of these powerful technologies on the body and society have, in most cases, only superficially discussed. Winged bodies (both animal and human) have been used in most cultures and throughout history. Usually, the kind of wings represented the creature (chimeras) as either good/angelic (bird-wing) or evil/satanic (bat-wing). There is yet another solution to flight in vertebrates which seems to be mostly free of cultural values - that of the Pterosaurs. We have used tissue engineering and stem cell technologies in order to grow pig bone tissue in the shape of these three sets of wings.
The Pig Wings installation presents the first ever wing shaped objects grown using living pig tissue. This absurd work presents some serious ethical questions regarding a near future where semi-living objects (objects which are partly alive and partly constructed) exists and animal organs will be transplanted into humans.
Os avanços nas tecnologias biomédicas, tais como a engenharia de tecidos, xenotransplantes e genómica prometem tornar o corpo vivo numa massa maleável. A retórica usada pelos promotores privados e públicos, assim como pelos media criou expectativas, junto do público, direccionadas para resultados pouco realistas. A totalidade dos efeitos destas tecnologias poderosas usadas sobre o corpo e na sociedade só têm sido discutidas superficialmente. Os corpos alados (tanto humanos como animais) têm sido utilizados na maior parte das culturas e em toda a história. Habitualmente, o tipo de asas representava a criatura (quimera) como boa/angélica (asa de pássaro) ou má/satânica (asa de morcego). Existe ainda uma outra solução para o voo nos vertebrados, que parece não estar rodeada de valores culturais - os pterossáurios. Utilizámos a engenharia de tecidos e as tecnologias de células estaminais de modo a gerar a partir do tecido ósseo do porco, a forma de três pares de asas. A instalação Porcos Alados apresenta os primeiros objectos com forma alada criados com tecidos vivos de porco. Este trabalho absurdo coloca-nos questões éticas sérias em relação a um futuro próximo, no qual existirão objectos semi-vivos (objectos que estão parcialmente vivos e parcialmente construídos) e os orgãos dos animais serão transplantados em seres humanos.
Exhibition view
INSIDE TV
Oron Catts at TechnoThreads
