PARALLEL Director’s Cut: Growing

The evolution of the „artifacts” only to a limited extent continues the evolution of organic bodies. At the latest from early modernity we observe the reverse process. (…) It is no longer a technique that tries to keep up with organic life, but – closer to modern times – life is being shaped according to the models that derive from the field of technical artifacts.

(H. Bohme, „Fetishism and Culture: A Different Theory of Modernity” 2014).

The exhibition consists of photographs, objects and film, which observe the current relationship between the artificial models and biological life through the prism of contemporary medical education.
Here, the humanoid simulators, augmented reality-based medical training systems, surrogates for human organs, bionic prostheses, are seen as not simply utilitarian objects and learning props, but cultural artefacts. They mirror the world views of their makers on the human body, in particular on whose/what bodies are considered as “medical” – such as in the case of the pregnant ones.
The parturient body is the main motif of the short fiction film “Growing”. Triggered by the national ban on access t abortion in Poland in October 2020, The film critically approaches the limitations of reproductive rights for women and implicated in the governmental control medicalization of pregnancy and childbirth.
The films and photographs use the life-like surroundings of medical simulation centers to draw out the dystopian dimension of the progressing medicalization and designing healthcare as controlled, corporatized environments. The work critically approaches the possible consequences of these processes, which allow the healthcare institutions to be used as extensions of governmental power.

The opening of the exhibition is accompanied by artist talks between Ettore Molinario (Collezione Molinario, Milan, Italy); screening of “Growing” (short film, fiction, prod. Le Fresnoy – Studio national) and discussion panel between the MOTELX Film Festival, A Coletiva Feminist Collective, and the artist.