Margherita Pevere
Arts of Vulnerability
Queering leaks in artistic research and bioart
100495
What does
it mean to be vulnerable – and what may vulnerability tell us about our bodies
and environments in posthuman terms?
Margherita Pevere's monograph responds to these questions by presenting artistic research conducted
through the manipulation of organic matter and biotechnology (bioart). Slugs,
cellulose-producing bacteria, bioreagents, drawing, writing: diverse materials
constellate throughout the research and come together in celebration of leaky
matters and relations.
The reader
is guided through the realization of two artworks (Semina Aeternitatis and the
series Wombs) with insights into biotechnological and artistic methods, and the
contexts of realization and exhibition. The monograph then offers a nuanced
discussion in feminist and queer terms about materiality, vulnerability, and
the entanglements of life and death. An image section accompanies the writing.
What
emerges are two concepts – ‘arts of vulnerability´ and ‘poetics of
uncontainability’ – which, while coming from the arts, may have something to
say about these very unstable times.