1 The Art of The Semi-Living

The field of biological arts deals with modern biological knowledge, its applications and outcomes as both medium and subject. This is a transgressive and explorative art form that draws its inspiration and discourses from a diverse array of disciplines and modes of art expressions. At this stage it seems to be too early to discuss biological art as a movement per se, but rather it can be analysed as a problematic engagement with a new medium for artistic expression. The motivations and backgrounds of the main artists in this emerging field range from formalistic approaches to total transgression of both the artistic and scientific discourses. Works that involve living components in their presentation can be seen in many cases as time base works. They are durational pieces that can be viewed as an ‘art as documentation’. In his essay Art in the Age of Biopolitics: From Artwork to Art Documentation, the Russian critic Boris Groys (2002) explains this turn towards ‘art as documentation ’ as the necessary result of art understood as ‘a form of life’. He writes ‘it is not the making of any finished artwork that is documented. Rather, documentation becomes the sole result of art which is understood as a form of life, a duration, a production of history.’(1) Relevant here is the work of the Tissue Culture and Art Project of which I am a founding member