[spectre] “Trust Me, I’m an Artist" with Art Orienté Objet in Paris, May 31st 2012

[Annick Bureaud]

I am pleased to announce that Leonardo/Olats is supporting 
the project “Trust Me, I’m an Artist: Towards an Ethics of 
Art and Science Collaboration” led by British artist Anna 
Dumitriu.

After Adam Zaretsky in Amsterdam, Neal White in London and 
Anna Dumitriu in Dublin, Art Orienté Objet (Marion 
Laval-Jeanted & Benoît Mangin) will propose, in front of an 
audience, their project “Du cheval au panda…” to a specially 
formed ethics committee  (following the rules and procedures 
typical for the host country).

The event takes place Thursday 31st May at 6:30pm  in the 
Salle des Actes, École normale supérieure, 45, rue d’Ulm 
75005 Paris, France

The event is free, within seats limit.
Please be kind enough to confirm your presence to Annick 
Bureaud : info [at]olats.org

Website: www.artscienceethics.com
Contact: Anna Dumitriu annadumitriu [at] hotmail.com


You will find below the full description of the overall 
project “Trust Me, I’m an Artist: Towards an Ethics of Art 
and Science Collaboration” and of the project "Du cheval au 
panda" proposed by Art Orienté Objet.


Best
Annick Bureaud


******************


“Trust Me, I’m an Artist: Towards an Ethics of Art and 
Science Collaboration”
  “Du cheval au panda…” with Art Orienté objet (Marion 
Laval-Jeantet & Benoît Mangin)
Date and time: Thursday 31st May at 6:30pm
Venue: The Salle des Actes, The École normale supérieure, 
45, rue d’Ulm 75005 Paris, France

Website: www.artscienceethics.com


“Trust Me, I’m an Artist: Towards an Ethics of Art and 
Science Collaboration” is an international project 
investigating the new ethical issues raised by art/science 
collaboration and the forthcoming event in Paris on 31st May 
at 6:30pm, at the École normale Supérieure, will feature the 
French duo Art Orienté objet. They will propose a new work 
called ““Du cheval au panda…” to a panel of experts who will 
consider the legal and moral issues that it raises and 
consider the roles and responsibilities of the artists, 
scientists and institutions involved. Art Orienté objet have 
been creating works concerned with the environment, 
trans-species relationships and the questioning of 
scientific methods and tools since 1991.

At each “Trust me, I’m an artist” event (before a live 
audience) an internationally known artist proposes an 
artwork to a specially formed ethics committee (following 
the rules and procedures typical for the host country), the 
ethics committee then debates the proposal and comes to a 
decision, the artist is then be informed of the ethics 
committee’s decision and, alongside the audience, can enter 
into a chaired discussion about the result.

Art Orienté objet’s  performance Que le cheval vive en moi 
(May the horse live in me) is an extreme, medical 
self-experiment with a blood-brotherhood beyond species 
boundaries. With this performance the French duo Art Orienté 
objet calls for greater ecological responsibility from 
humans, whose technologies increasingly instrumentalize 
other animals and plants. The artist Marion Laval-Jeantet 
has turned herself into a proverbial “guinea pig,” allowing 
herself to be injected over the course of several months 
with horse immunoglobulins (glycoproteins that function as 
antibodies in immune response) and thus developing a 
progressive tolerance to these foreign animal bodies. In 
February 2011, having built up her tolerance, she was able 
to be injected with horse blood plasma containing the entire 
spectrum of foreign immunoglobulins, without falling into 
anaphylactic shock—the intention being that the horse 
immunoglobulin would by-pass the defensive mechanisms of her 
own human immune system, enter her blood stream to bond with 
the proteins of her own body and, as a result of this 
synthesis, have an effect on all major body functions. 
Immunoglobulins are biochemical messengers that control, for 
example, the glands and organs of the endocrine system, 
which is also closely tied to the nervous system, so that 
the artist, during and in the weeks after the performance, 
experienced not only alterations in her physiological rhythm 
but also of her consciousness, characterized by heightened 
sensibility and nervousness. After the transfusion, Marion 
Laval-Jeantet, on stilts, performed a communication ritual 
with a horse before her hybrid blood was extracted and 
freeze-dried. This risky undertaking alludes to the 
possibility of healing autoimmune diseases using foreign 
immunoglobulins as therapeutic “boosters.” Here, as the 
artists maintain, “the animal becomes the future of the 
human.” As a radical experiment whose long-term effects 
cannot be calculated, Que le cheval vive en moi questions 
the anthropocentric attitude inherent to our technological 
understanding. Instead of trying to attain “homeostasis,” a 
state of physiological balance, with this performance, the 
artists sought to initiate a process of “synthetic 
transi-stasis,” in which the only constant is continual 
transformation and adaptation. The performance represents a 
continuation of the centaur myth, that human-horse hybrid 
which, as “animal in human,” symbolizes the antithesis of 
the rider, who as human dominated the animal.

Due to the high symbolic value of this animal, the duo would 
like to reenact the performance, this time with the panda. 
This performance would be entitled « May The Panda Live in 
me ». This is this scenario they introduce to the Ethics 
Committee.

The aim is to reveal the mechanisms that drive this usually 
hidden process which behind scientific research decisions, 
enabling the wider public to understand the driving forces 
behind ethical decision making and the role of artists 
working in scientific settings more deeply. Other events in 
the series have featured projects by Adam Zaretsky, Neal 
White and Anna Dumitriu.

The project “Trust Me I’m an Artist: Towards an Ethics of 
Art/Science Collaboration” is led by artist Anna Dumitriu in 
collaboration with Professor Bobbie Farsides (Chair of 
Ethics, Brighton and Sussex Medical School) in collaboration 
with the Waag Society and The University of Leiden.