The Origin of Species – Post Evolution – CornMarta de Menezes (PT), Maria Antonia Gonzalez Valerio (MX)

Installation, 2018

In this work we use CRISPR-Cas9[1] to silence a transgenic modification of corn, creating a new variety simultaneously natural and genetically modified. Humans and corn have co-existed in central America for many generations influencing each other. The human society and culture has been shaped by corn while, simultaneously, humans have progressively modified the characteristics of corn. Through centuries, slowly, yet relentlessly, both human culture and corn varieties changed together. In recent years, however, biotechnology allowed the fast change of corn leading to a massive increase in its productivity, taking advantage of biological traits of the plant – namely its photosynthesis efficiency – that may perhaps be exported to other species such as rice. The fast change in the plants did not have parallel in the Mexican culture where less mainstream corn varieties are still favoured for traditional dishes. The silencing of a transgene by CRISPR-Cas9 creates a tension by generating a natural plant by means of genetic intervention, and questions the limits of the natural, where all crops are a consequence of co-evolution with humans.

Marta de Menezes

Corn is not just a plant; it is a bio artefact in many ways. Not only because it has been selected and domesticated for thousands of years by Mesoamerican cultures, but also because its growth and spread are linked to its cultural meaning. The limits of corn are not material; it cannot be understood as a single separate entity that can be biotechnologically modified because the technology is able to do it. Corn is a multi-layered entity that has been built according to contexts and circumstances, from environment to cuisine recipes. To modify matter in a bio artefact that is a hybrid of cultures, techniques, crops, varieties, rituals, myths, traditions, food, etc., is only to modify a tiny part of what this organism actually is. The question about genetically modified corn is then not just about transgenics, health, agroindustry and transnational companies taking control of a huge variety of seeds, but about a complex unity of corn, production, consumption and the spaces in which this is taking place. Corn is out there in the field being either grown through traditional crops or controlled through industry and technology. Who is growing corn, where and with what purpose? Who is eating/using corn, where and with what purpose? From being a massive food source for animals that cannot process it, e.g., cows, to biofuels to plastics, corn is being used in industrialized ways that transform it profoundly. To alter it through CRISPR-Cas9 editing its genome in order to bring back what was not originally there, but just previously there, means to radicalize the non-existing frontier between natural and artificial that brings to the front the idea that the question is not about matter and its material modifications. Corn is not just a plant, it is a myriad of transformations and interrelations that implicate many agents and agencies.

Maria Antonia Gonzalez Valerio

[1] CRISPR-Cas9, technology enabling precise and partial editing of a genome.

Acknowledgements:

Dr. Nelson Saibo , Principal Investigator at Plant Gene Regulation Laboratory, ITQB, Portugal

http://www.itqb.unl.pt/research/plant-sciences/plant-gene-regulation/plant-gene-regulation

Marta de Menezes (PT)

Marta de Menezes is among the first artists to work with biotechnology, contributing to the creation of bioart. She has shown that biology research laboratories can be used as art studios. Her many artworks have incorporated materials and expertise from different disciplines (CRISPR/Cas9, MRI, structural biology, microbiology, among others). Her work has been presented throughout the globe in exhibitions, conferences, and publications. A Portuguese artist with a degree in Fine Arts by the University in Lisbon, a MSt in History of Art and Visual Culture by the University of Oxford, with a ABD from the University of Leiden. Marta has been exploring the intersection between Art and Biology, working in research laboratories demonstrating that new biological technologies can be used as a new art medium. In 1999 de Menezes created her first biological artwork (Nature?) by modifying the wing patterns of live butterflies. Since then, she has used diverse biological techniques including functional MRI of the brain to create portraits where the mind can be visualised (Functional Portraits, 2002); fluorescent DNA probes to create micro-sculptures in human cell nuclei (nucleArt, 2002); sculptures made of proteins (Proteic Portrait, 2002-2007), DNA (Innercloud, 2003; The Family, 2004) or incorporating live neurons (Tree of Knowledge, 2005) or bacteria (Decon, 2007). Her work has been presented internationally in exhibitions, articles and lectures. She is currently the Artistic Director of Ectopia, an experimental art laboratory in Lisbon, and Director of Cultivamos Cultura in the South of Portugal.

martademenezes@gmail.com
martademenezes.com; cultivamoscultura.org

Maria Antonia Gonzalez Valerio (MX)

María Antonia González Valerio earned a PhD in Philosophy from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) with postdoctoral studies in the area of aesthetics. Full-time professor of the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature and of the postgraduate programs in Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Art History and Fine Arts UNAM. She works within the research line of ontology-aesthetics and the interdisciplinary line of arts, sciences and humanities, specifically in the field of art that uses bio-media. Head of the research group Arte+Ciencia (Art+Science) which gathers artists, scholars and scientists in an interdisciplinary work that produces education at an under and postgraduate level, specialized theoretical research, artistic creation and exhibitions. Leader of the research project Complexity and natural philosophy at the intersection of art and science, linked to the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature UNAM.