BIO-ART FEATURE, Nantes, France 2003

ART IMITATES LIFE-SCIENCE
The Bio-Art Movement Finds (Cultures & Grows) Its Wings in France
Text and photos: Shana Ting Lipton

NANTES, France-
This was the birthplace of science fiction writer Jules Verne. And during World War I, it was here that surrealist king pin Andre Breton met a wounded soldier in a hospital ward whose conviction that art was nonsense was one of the catalysts for the Surrealism and Dada art movements. Verne was a writer who read scientific journals and incorporated them into his fantastical literary works. Breton and his ilk, called upon the Freudian world of psychoanalysis and dreams for inspiration in their artistic forays. These crude and early hybrids of the arts were conceived here in Nantes. They crossed boundaries and found ways to marry science and art.
It's March 13th, 2003. It's a chilly, gray day in downtown Nantes. A walk over a bridge and just past some railroad tracks takes me to the foot of the huge cement building. It used to be the LU biscuit factory, but just three years ago it was transformed into the cultural center, Le Lieu Unique. Founded by 'the French pope of alternative culture' Jean Blaise. Its raison-d'etre is to provide an all-purpose locale (cafe/bar, gallery, lecture space, bookstore, restaurant) where the arts and everyday life can seamlessly co-habitate, far from the alienating snobbery of the Paris art scene. It's a sort of casual open forum for diverse ideas.

For the next couple of months, the image of a large fluorescent green rabbit is draped over the side of Le Lieu Unique (known to locals in its former nomenclature, LU). Beneath it are the words "L'Art Biotech" (translation: bio-art), heralding a two-month long exhibit and a one-day symposium in the name of a growing art-meets-science movement.

Full article at:
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/3kan/bio-art-1.html

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