IN VITRO
Holographic video installation. Andrea Santini & Francesca Sarah Toich
Inspired by the extraordinary and controversial achievements in the field of genetic engineering, the installation reflects on the reasons and outcomes that drive such research. While adopting contemporary aesthetics, the work evokes centuries of alchemy and experimentation, from Paracelsus’ notion of the Homunculus to its subsequent developments in Nineteenth century fiction.
A video projection is mapped onto a set of laboratory test tubes, where images acquire an holographic quality given by a combination of liquid, glass and rear-projection film material. The size and position of the rack prompts viewers to draw in near and observe the different processes that seem to take place ‘in vitro’.
A series of clones of female bodies and plants (both symbols of nature, life and fertility) appear to be seamlessly generated and dissolved ‘in vitro’ from particles of projected light, showing several different relationships with the space and with the viewer. Forms of life 'escaping' the art laboratory to remind us of ancient myths somehow still deeply embedded in current scientific research ?
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