This documentary is about topics related to what is usually referred to as 'nature' and man. The approach derives from anthropological studies: the images convey the perception of a separation between man and nature in reference to the culture/nature and civil/savage dichotomy. The perception of the distance between the human sphere and the natural sphere, conceived as being non-human, is the starting point for the presentation in this video. The aim is to present the idea that nature is not a separate entity, outside man's world, but rather a cultural concept and category. The culture/nature dichotomy is replaced with a single category of 'the living' based on hybridization, on «hybris […] which refers to the bio-cultural acquisition of otherness, composed of genetic engineering itself». (Gilardi, 'Dalla Land Art alla Bioarte').
La cultura dell'ibridazione
In-depth analysis
About the Movie La cultura dell'ibridazione
Parco d’Arte Vivente Association
The films presented by our cultural association, Parco d'Arte Vivente, are a concise example of the fruitful union between the environmentalist movement and the artistic movement known as "bio-art." The video "The Culture of Hybridization" by filmmakers Dario Magnani and Andrea Fantino tells the story of the birth of PAV and features a chorus of expert voices summarizing its philosophy. The videos by Francesco Mariotti and Caretto & Spagna illustrate two exemplary experiences of this "art of the living" in their concrete implementation. What contribution, we ask, can art make to the resolution of a geopolitical crisis of the magnitude we are experiencing? The reserves of fossil fuels, which nature has given us "freely," are being depleted due to plunder by a highly energy-intensive society. The greenhouse effect is gradually approaching a point of no return. Social relations and democracy are becoming more rigid due to the pressure of unlimited economic growth. How can art impact the factors of crises of this magnitude? Oscar Wilde said: "Art is useless, therefore essential." This aphorism can mean for us that, in the face of environmental disaster, the "truth" of art corroborates the subjective aspect of the ineluctable dynamic of transformation. The imminent and necessary biopolitics needed to save human settlement on the planet can only pass through a phase of "reenchantment" with nature and the world. This is a task that art can certainly undertake, growing and spreading as a symbolic, experiential, and convivial practice. Art thus becomes the vehicle of a new, pluralistic and relativistic philosophy of life, of a reconceptualizing thought that deconstructs the ironclad antinomies of universalist anthropocentrism to instead construct development models based on rebalancing and redistribution. Bioart, more specifically, directs its transformative energy toward that crucial area of acquired subjective power – the ability to manipulate the biological basis of life, with its modernist corollary of the will to power. (Piero Gilardi, president of acPav)
«It is necessary to overcome Cartesian dualisms, substantialist and anthropocentric positions, to investigate the relationship with the otherness of the human being, understood anthropologically as a temporary and transitory whole in the cosmological process of coevolution». (Gilardi, "From Land Art to Bioart")
Sostenibility
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Creative Europe Media Program. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.