Mario Savini’s book is the first collection of all the names of the artists in the world who have employed the genetic engineering techniques to create artworks.

Mario Savini’s book “Arte transgenica. La vita è il medium” has been published in the Italian language by the Pisa University Press (Pisa University publishing company). This volume – with a preface by the French philosopher Yves Michaud – is the result of a scientific research on which the author has been focused for almost four years.

Mario Savini, art critic and journalist, is currently collaborating with the Teramo University where he got his PhD. His book draws attention to the important developments made in the artistic field thanks to the use of the genetic engineering techniques. Besides a critic analysis, all the artists combining genetic material of different origin to crate artistic works have been recorded as it is done during a census. One aim of the book is to interpret, by drawing a radical cultural redefinition, the thought of a new type of creativity which inevitably involves the most significant aspects of social life.

“What interests me the most in the context of the ongoing considerations, – stresses Yves Michaud in the preface – is the first part of the book which represents an attempt to conceptualize the artistic and aesthetic situation as modified by the Bioart, by the transgenic art and, in general, by the encounter between art and science”.

Another purpose of the work is underlying, through unpublished documentation, the most relevant changes which have taken place in contemporary art since the beginning of the 90’s in the 20th century. Even if limited, transgenic art constitutes an important field of action in the current cultural system which, associated with other performative practices, forces us to revise the meaning given to “art”. One part of the volume is devoted to the interviews to famous artists, such as Joe Davis (researcher at the Biology Department of MIT and at the George Church Laboratory – Harvard Medical School), the first artist to present a transgenic artwork. This book is included in the “Connessioni” collection and is enriched with several black and white pictures. Further information can be found by consulting the following website: www.transgenic-art.com

IMAGES AVAILABLE IN THIS LINK: https://transgenic-art.com/press-material/