Bio
Yiannis Melanitis (1967-) is a Greek conceptual artist, bio artist, sculptor, painter, writing on critical art theory. His work initiates from an intense conceptualisation on the strategies of contemporary art. His research focuses on the role of information on the arts .(“INFORMATION AS THE NEW CONCEPTUALIZATION / see Quantum Manifesto) . First bioart works realized in 1998. Latest work is LEDA TRANSGENIC -his gene micro-injected into the butterfly named Leda Melanitis for the creation of a transgenic butterfly breed.(see Ontogenetic Art statement) His essays on art and philosophy have been translated into English, Italian, Korean and Greek. He has exhibited worldwide and his work has become a subject of criticism in international editions as "Art Tomorrow" (Ed.L.Smith), Leonardo MIT press, Lomonosov Moscow University, by Seung-Chol Shin, Mario Savini, Assimina Kaniari and others.
Title
"A transgenic butterfly with a human gene: Transfering information between organisms"
Abstract
The Melanitis leda Project is a transgenic model of the Leda Melanitis butterfly (named by Linnaeus 1758), using one of the artists’ genes .The project, completed last year, was to breed transgenic butterflies containing a gene of human origin, which miss-expressed a protein to acquire ectopic eyes. As Antiphon the sophist states “Names can be erroneous… The concepts we use are not delimited by the exact way objects are”. That is the initial point for making LEDA MELANITIS. My surname, Μelanitis, derives from the Greek root melas (μέλας), dark, deprived of light; a property probably attracted Linnaeus in naming the inspected butterfly... The broader area of my analysis is information in contemporary art and under this sense, Leda Melanitis initiates a dispersion of homonymic information between organisms. The aim of Leda Melanitis is to interweave language and life not as bio-laboratory exercise, but in the tradition of a modernistic art strategy and practice.
In collaboration with Sozita Goudouna
In collaboration with Sozita Goudouna
