Event 1 - Art and Immunology: a Lifelong Relationship

    

UCLA Broad Art Center

    The first event I attended was hosted by Marta De Menezes on April 27, 2023 located at the Broad Art Center. Marta De Menezes is an inspiring Portuguese artist who has achieved a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Lisbon and her masters from the University of Oxford. After obtaining her masters at Oxford Marta De Menezes decided to stay due to the artistic freedom she was exposed to. She expressed how it was easy to network with other artists which was something that she found difficult to do back in Portugal. She emphasized the importance in communicating and connecting with peers when it comes to being an artist because peers are needed to exchange ideas. As a result of this she founded Cultivamos Cultura which is an institution that allows scientists and artists to collaborate in experimental art in both Portugal and Ectopia. Marta De Menezes also began to host events where individuals were allowed to present artwork to fellow peers. Another event Marta De Menezes has organized is a conference + workshop called Femeeting. This event was made to gather and allow women in the art, science, and technology field to network. She stated during the event that many projects come out of this which is something I find really inspiring. 

 

Digital Flyer of FEMEETING

    Following the introduction, Menezes presented a slide that asked "What is Art?". She mentioned that as a student in art she had a lot of issues with this question, more specifically she had an issue with her being told not to answer it. Marta De Menezes found that it was important for her to answer this question because she is an artist who works with scientists and it is hard for people to understand that what she creates is art. Her understanding of art comes from a conversation from her life partner. He states that following the question "What is art?" is the question "What is the immune system?". The immune system is the most creative organism in the human body. It is a creative organism because it is the only system in the body that edits DNA and creates molecules in our body that have never existed before. She connects this with her work by asking herself if she was creating things that have never existed before. 

What is Art?

    Marta De Menezes also connects biology and art. She stated that both allow us to understand what we are, who we are, and where we come from. Her life partner, Luis, defined the immune system as "perfect". What he meant by this is that perfect is dynamic and ready to deal with what it has encountered before. Marta and Luis collaborated in an experiment art piece called Anti-Marta that represents "the relationship between an artist and a scientist, but also the boundary between art and science, and the limits of our own identity" (Menezes). What they did in order to create this was have an immunologist perform a transplantation of skin grafts. Although the transplants were rejected due to immunity differences, their pact lives on as the rejection has permitted antibodies to be formed that are able to identify one another. 

     This can be connected to this weeks material on the human body and medical technology. Professor Vesna stated that body modification such as plastic surgery can be considered a form of art. (Vesna) This is represented by Anti-Marta and works of other artists such as the French artist Orlan. Orlan has used her face and body as tools for creating art. Orlan has experienced a total of nine constructive surgeries to create art. Each surgery performed on Orlan has been a representation of former famous paintings. For example, she had work done on her forehead to appear similar to Leonardo's Mona Lisa as a way to represent the beauty standard (Rose). It is very fascinating to me that many artists incorporate the human body into their artwork. Overall, I enjoyed listening to Marta's lunchtime talk. I would highly recommend you go to one of her events because she is very inspiring. I had fun connecting the course material to her experiences and work. 

Proof of Attendance

I was able to sign in on the sign-in sheet that was located at the entrance. We also took a group picture with Marta, but I was unable to get ahold of it by the time this was posted. However, Professor Vesna should have the picture. 

Works Cited

De Menezes, Marta. “Immortality for Two.” Marta De Menezes, https://martademenezes.com/art/immunity/immortality-for-two/.

Rose, Barbara. “ORLAN: IS IT ART? ORLAN AND THE TRANSGRESSIVE ACT.” Stanford University, https://web.stanford.edu/class/history34q/readings/Orlan/Orlan2.html.

Vesna, Victoria. "Human Body & Medical Technology." Design Media Arts 9, April 2023, University of California Los Angeles. Lecture.