Abstract

MARTIN, Nadia. CULTIVATED PORTRAITS. (MICROORGANIC AND SYMPOIETICS) VISIONS OF THE BODY IN THE WORK OF LUCIANA PAOLETTI. Índex [online]. 2020, n.10, pp.126-142. ISSN 2477-9199.  https://doi.org/10.26807/cav.vi10.382.

The work addresses the series Retratos (2010-present) which the artist and biotechnologist Luciana Paoletti makes by cultivating the microorganisms captured in the bodies of loved ones, following the program of "making visible the invisible". I analyze the deviations that the artist makes from both the scientific discipline and the concept of bioart. I also reflect on the tensions that the series establishes with the modern tradition of portraiture, to which it comments.The central question is what kind of referential power do these images hold with respect to the "living model" represented. Through the concept of sypoietics contributed by Donna Haraway, the rupture that this artist makes with respect to the human visual scale is analyzed. It is concluded that far from a relationship of similarity with the body to which they refer, they establish a metonymic relationship, based on contact. The body is, thus, shown as the territory of a microbiological life to discover.

Keywords : Art, science and technology; Bioart; Body; Contemporary art; Portrait;Posthumanism..

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