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9/2/2012

Lorena Lozano

LABoral Art and Industrial Creation Centre, Gijon

Biography of the clinical body and the human body. A tribute to Henrietta Lacks.

This project explores the ways in which biological sciences doggedly pursue immortality and a transcendence of death, rendered here in an installation by means of a mise en scène of a clinical test and a dance rehearsal. The idea is to open up a reflection on the politics, rights and property of the body and the advances brought about by medical and biological research, while at once paying tribute to Henrietta Lacks.

The installation screens images of human epithelial cells known as HeLa. This cell line is traced back to Henrietta Lacks, an Afro-American woman born in the USA from whom cells were extracted without her consent, before her death in 1951. These were the first human cells that were able to be developed in a laboratory and they are still used today in the majority of biomedical research projects. The story of Henrietta Lacks lays bare the legal and ethical questions which biomedical research must face. At the same time, the installation screens footage of the dancer Sonia Gómez heavily pregnant during one of her rehearsals. It is a mise en scène of the process of construction of an improvised choreography at a specific moment in the dancer’s life. While, on one hand, the biological sciences present the human body as composed of separate and separatable parts and suggest an interchangeability of the organs without reference to the body as a unit, the dancer’s work, on the other hand, helps to reconstruct this body as a whole, underscoring the continuity of its vital functions.

In March, coinciding with International Women’s Day, an event will be held with the artist, plus a screening of a documentary on Henrietta Lacks’ story followed by a debate.

During the opening, Bitchez Wit Dikz will perform an instrumental Hip Hop demo, inspired and designed specifically for the project.

Credits:
Dancer and performer: Sonia Gómez (www.soniagomez.com)

Camera: LABoral / Ana F. García

Photographic material courtesy of: Marco Archinti / Instituto de Recerca Biomédica, IRB, Parc Cientific, Barcelona

Programme of activities funded by the Ministry for Culture and Sports of the Principality of Asturias

LABoral Centro de Arte y Creacion Industrial
Los Prados 121 33394 Gijón (Asturias)
Hours:
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, from 10 am to 7 pm
Saturday and Sunday, from noon to 8 pm
Closed every Tuesday (except for public holidays and local holidays)
The access to Exhibition Room finishes 15 minutes before the centre closes.
Fees & tickets
General fee: 2,00 €:
Free entrance: Friends of LABoral, under 10 years old, accredited press, members of ICOM, IAC and Visual Artists associations.
Free entrance days: Every Wednesday and 18th of May (International Museum Day).

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