About 2015 BIOART Exhibition
Sustainability: Abundance of Life is the theme of 2015 BIOART Exhibition organized in collaboration with SNU Medicinal Bioconvergence Research Center (Biocon), Seoulin Bioscience Co., Ltd, and the Digital Art Weeks International. The event showcases Korean as well as international artists whose approaches cover a broad spectrum of research related to the life sciences and whose artworks explore the actual use biological materials in art.
Following its previous editions - “The Link of Life” (2013) and “Life and its Creative Energy” (2014), this year exhibition is focused on science and art in aesthetic discourse raising questions about the role of scientific research in contemporary art aesthetics and the ethical considerations raised by use of living materials in the Bio Art movement.
Consisting of a competition, an exhibition and outreach program, the event presents actual scientific research within a gallery context and reveals to the public the methods of science that conventionally sit hidden away behind the walls of countless laboratories.
Open to the public, the outreach program explores techniques employed in laboratories by scientists within a workshop context and engages participants in a process of discovery of some of the scientific pursuits being illustrated by the artworks.
The organizers of the BIOART Exhibition believe that the event will provoke a debate and raise questions around contemporary bio-art practices, aesthetics and scientific inquire.
Curators Statement
The term abundance refers to a very large quantity or to a state or condition of having a copious quantity of something. Nature is in abundance and this plentitude reflects one if the key issues about life. Taken as a point of reference for an exhibition for artworks that explore the use of biological material as process to create art work provide a unifying concept for the fastness of activity in the area of Bio Arts.The quantity or amount of such art and its various manifestation presented in a particular area of space also offers the viewer an estimates of the abundance, which is a key curational approach to the exhibition. Art like life is presented in abundance, plentitude being represented through the creation of a mixed media exhibition that embraces genres from painting to interactive arts.
The approach taken is interdisciplinary and focuses in unforced manner the relationship between art and science, reaches out to an intergenerational target audience, and is international in its scope, celebrating Bio Art as one of the most important movements an importance in the art world today.
The exhibition consists of a single space that is dedicated to the processes of bio arts and includes a bio arts camp, or pop up lab which explores the actual creative processes of using biological materials to create art. The space also posts actual growing bio art works in forms of floor and arial sculptures and a collection of art works that are framed in “abundance” by a conceptual work that explores the frame of paintings as it area of artistic expression. This sense of exploration is extended to the walls by the inclusion of a collection of open call artworks that are unified by a conceptual artwork that explores the territory of the frame with a series of gold leafed patterns found in nature.
About the Open Calls
The opportunity to submit works for the competition and the exhibition extends to all artists interested in creating art related to the life sciences. Proposed submissions should reflect the theme of the exhibition “Sustainability: Abundance of Life” and where possible also show scientific research as a converging factor in the arts. Although any type of artwork can be submitted, more attention will be given to small formats works that work with framing.
For more information please visit our site:
http://bioconarts.blogspot.ch/p/biocon-art-exhibtion-open-call.html
Instructions for submission:
Please submit all works in png or jpeg format (maximum 10mb) along with the completed application form.Submissions should be made available for view by sending the image and from to email address below. Selected works will be presented in Seoul at established arts venue for entire period of the exhibition.
Please send all submissions to:
BioCon Bio Arts Exhibition
biocon.bioartscall@gmail.com
Download Submission Form → word (separate file)
For more information regarding the call please write to:
bioarts@digitalartweeks.org
Important Dates
- 15 June 2015 Submissions accepted
- 30 August 2015 Deadline for Submissions
- 01 October 2015 Announcement of Accepted Works
- 05 November 2015 Exhibition Opens
- 15 November 2015 Exhibition Closes
About the Workshops
2015 BioArt Outreach event consists of a series of workshops and presentations initiated to bring artists, scientists and technologists together to foster new connections, interactions and collaborations between participants. The workshops are carried out in a portable biology laboratory setup that serves as a “field research station” which houses a functional biological sciences lab capable of fostering a variety of art/science projects while stimulating hands on experience centered around doing. At the same time the program works toward the demystification and democratization of science by embracing the cultural spirit of DIY (Do It Yourself) and DIWO (Do It With Others) so that anyone can get involved in producing and creating activities around art and natural sciences, especially biology.Organizers and Sponsors
The project organisers include:- Science Chair: Sunghoon Kim
- Arts Chair: Arthur Clay
- Project Managers (International): Monika Rut
- Project Managers (National): Chihi In
- Project Assistant: Sejin Stellar Park, Kevin Ahn, Deborah Kim
The project sponsors have included: Seourin Bio Sicnece Inc., The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, National Science Museum, Gwacheon National Science Museum.
For more on the BioCon Research Laboratories, please see:
http://www.biocon.re.kr
For more on the Seoulin Bioscience Co., Ltd, please see:
http://www.seoulin.co.kr
For more on the Digital Art Weeks International, please see:
www.digitalartweeks.ethz.ch