PT// I Can’t Live Without You por Cosima Herter & Marta De Menezes
I Can’t Live Without You é uma colaboração multimédia entre uma contadora de histórias, uma artista e um fungo comedor de plástico. Trata-se de uma escultura viva de grande escala nascida no interior de um thriller de ficção científica escrito por Herter (I Can’t Live Without You; inédito) que explora as relações variáveis da humanidade com tecnologias que assumiram literalmente vida própria.
À distância, a instalação parece ser uma escultura em tamanho real de uma forma feminina adulta e nua num aquário de vidro. É oca, feita de plástico, quase transparente, e parece estranhamente delicada. Está de pé, com os braços erguidos acima da cabeça e os dedos abertos, como se estivesse a tocar num espetáculo diante dos seus olhos erguidos que não podemos ver. O seu corpo está parado em plena tensão, enquanto ela estica os braços para cima. À medida que o observador se aproxima, torna-se evidente que ela não está sozinha. O seu parceiro é revelado na textura da sua superfície: Pestalotiopsis microspora (P. microspora). Durante as próximas semanas, o fungo vai, literalmente, comer a escultura. Colonizando o seu corpo, consumindo o seu ser e, por fim, morrendo de fome quando ela desaparecer completamente.
EN// I Can’t Live Without You by Cosima Herter & Marta De Menezes
I Can’t Live Without You is a multimedia collaboration between storyteller, artist, and a plastic-eating fungus. It is a large-scale, living sculpture born inside a science fiction thriller written by Herter (I Can’t Live Without You; unpublished) which explores humanity’s varying relationships with technologies that have literally taken on lives of their own.
From a distance, the installation appears to be a life size sculpture of a naked, adult female form in a glass aquarium. She is hollow, made of plastic, nearly transparent, and seems eerily delicate. She stands with her arms raised above her head with her fingers spread as though touching a spectacle in front of her lifted eyes that we cannot see. Her body is poised in mid-strain as she reaches upwards. As the viewer moves closer, it’s apparent that she is not alone. Her partner is revealed on the texture of her surface: Pestalotiopsis microspora (P. microspora). Over the next several weeks, the fungus will, literally, eat the sculpture. Colonizing her body, consuming her being, and ultimately dying of starvation once she is completely gone.
BIO
Cosima Herter (b.1970) is a Canadian writer, creator, story & science consultant with a scholarly background in the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology, & Medicine. She is most known for her collaborations on the famed, multi award-winning series Orphan Black (BBCA), and Snowpiercer series (TNT/Netflix). She currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Marta de Menezes (born 1975) is a Portuguese artist, with a Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Lisbon and a MSt from the University of Oxford. De Menezes is director of Cultivamos Cultura, the leading institution devoted to experimental art in Portugal and Ectopia, dedicated to facilitate the collaborative work between artists and scientists. Marta de Menezes has worked in the intersection of art and biology since the late 90s, in the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, and Portugal, exploring the conceptual and aesthetic opportunities offered by biological sciences for visual representation in the arts.
Her work has been widely exhibited in major venues in all continents, presented in most anthologies devoted to bioart, discussed in doctoral dissertations, and considered an example of research in the visual arts. Among the most recent international exhibitions, de Menezes was invited for the 2019 Ars Electronica Festival: Out of the Box, and organized two 2020 Ars Electronica Gardens (Lisbon and São Luis). She was invited to be the official representation of Portugal at the London Design Biennale 2016 and exhibited at the Beijing Biennale of New Media Art 2016. De Menezes was nominated in 2015 by Time and Fortune magazines for the Art and Technology Awards 2015. Besides her work as artist, de Menezes curated major international exhibitions including for European Capital of Culture (Portugal), Kontejner Festival (Zagreb), Verbeke Foundation (Belgium) and this last three years the editions of FACTT – Transnational and Transdisciplinary Festival of Art and Science that took place in Lisbon, New York, Mexico City, Berlin and Toronto.
