Das zentrale Werk der Serie Natural History of the Enigma ist ein Plantimal, eine neue Lebensform, die der Künstler geschaffen hat und die er „Edunia“ nennt. Edunia ist eine gentechnisch veränderte Blume, die ein Hybrid aus sich selbst und einer Petunie ist. Edunia exprimiert ihre DNA ausschließlich in ihren roten Adern.
Die neue Blume ist eine Petunien-Sorte, die Kac durch Methoden der Molekularbiologie erfunden und produziert hat. Sie kommt in der Natur nicht vor. Die Edunia hat rote Adern auf hellrosa Blütenblättern und ein Gen wird auf jeder Zelle ihrer roten Adern exprimiert, d. h. das Gen produziert ein Protein nur in den Adern. Das Gen wurde isoliert und aus dem Plantimal-Blut sequenziert. Der blütenblattrosa Hintergrund, vor dem die roten Adern zu sehen sind, erinnert an ihren eigenen rosa-weißen Hautton. Das Ergebnis dieser molekularen Manipulation ist eine Blüte, die lebhaft an menschliches Blutes erinnert, das durch die Venen einer Blume fließt.
Projekt Credits:
- Collection of Wiyu Wahono
Biografie:
Eduardo Kac is internationally recognized for his telepresence and bio art. A pioneer of telecommunications art in the pre-Web ’80s, Eduardo Kac (pronounced „Katz“) emerged in the early ’90s with his radical works combining telerobotics and living organisms. His visionary integration of robotics, biology and networking explores the fluidity of subject positions in the post-digital world. His work deals with issues that range from the mythopoetics of online experience (Uirapuru) to the cultural impact of biotechnology (Genesis); from the changing condition of memory in the digital age (Time Capsule) to distributed collective agency (Teleporting an Unknown State); from the problematic notion of the „exotic“ (Rara Avis) to the creation of life and evolution (GFP Bunny).
At the dawn of the twenty-first century Kac opened a new direction for contemporary art with his „transgenic art“–first with a groundbreaking piece entitled Genesis (1999), which included an „artist’s gene“ he invented, and then with „GFP Bunny,“ his fluorescent rabbit called Alba (2000).
Kac’s work has been exhibited internationally at venues such as Exit Art and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid; Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai; and Seoul Museum of Art, Korea.
Kac’s work has been showcased in biennials such as Yokohama Triennial, Japan; Biennial of the End of the World, Ushuaia, Argentina; Gwangju Biennale, Korea; Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil; International Triennial of New Media Art, National Art Museum of China, Beijing; and Bienal de Habana, Cuba. His work is in the permanent collections of the Tate, London; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Museum of Modern Art in New York; Frac Occitanie—Regional collections of contemporary art, Les Abattoirs—Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Toulouse, France; the Museum of Modern Art of Valencia, Spain; the ZKM Museum, Karlsruhe, Germany; Art Center Nabi, Seoul; and the Museum of Contemporary Art of São Paulo, among others.
Kac’s work has been featured both in contemporary art publications (Contemporary, Flash Art, Artforum, ARTnews, Kunstforum, Tema Celeste, Artpress, NY Arts Magazine), contemporary art books (Phaidon, Thames and Hudson, Oxford, MIT Press) and in the mass media (ABC, BBC, PBS, Le Monde, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, New York Times). Kac has received many awards, including the Golden Nica Award, the most prestigious award in the field of media arts and the highest prize awarded by Ars Electronica. He lectures and publishes worldwide.
His work is documented at www.ekac.org.
