Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc (2015) 23:629–635 DOI 10.1007/s00167-014-3330-9
SPORTS MEDICINE
Art and science a unique world Rebecca Russo
Published online: 7 October 2014 © European Society of Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery, Arthroscopy (ESSKA) 2014
Can science be art? Anatomy as contemporary art? Pau Golanò reveals the mystery to us. The human body is also a wonderful work of art. It is the scientific and artistic object of Pau Golanò, an international star of anatomical photography in the medical field but also an exceptional genius and pure talent within the artistic field. The photography of Golanò is the fruit of the fertile integration between science and art, both aiming at the search for truth. In fact, in his work, the boundaries between scientific and artistic expertise are erased, in a fruitful mutual interaction. The extraordinary balance between life and death, reality and imagination, form and substance, matter and energy, light and shadow creates pictures of rare and sublime beauty. The photography of Golanò appears to regenerate and renew the body object, in itself inanimate, bringing it back to a new life. In 2013, the Art and Science Videoinsight® Foundation [1–4] launched the Catalan scientist Pau Golanò in the world of contemporary art, curating the first exhibition dedicated to him at a worldwide première at the Museum of Anatomical Waxes Luigi Cattaneo in Bologna. The exhibition, entitled Anatomia Profundae, presented eighteen photographs of extraordinary quality. They showed anatomical preparations reworked in a visionary and innovative key, endowed with fascinating symbolic power. The event was a huge success among audiences and critics. Golanò was recognised as an artist in the contemporary art system as well.
R. Russo (*) Art and Science Videoinsight® Foundation, Via Bonsignore 7, Turin, Italy e-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.fasv.it
The photography shown in Bologna in 2014, entitled Immersion (Fig. 1), won the European Fotciencia photography contest, organised by the Superior Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology. In October 2014, at the American University of Beirut (AUB), the Art and Science Videoinsight® Foundation curated the second exhibition dedicated to Pau Golanò, already an internationally renowned scientist and artist. The exhibition, entitled Life, comprised twenty photographs and a video installation of stunning beauty. Pau Golanò is a real artistic talent, combining creativity, knowledge, technical skills and aesthetics in an original way. His anatomical photography is a true masterpiece. The object is firstly physically prepared using a well established technique, through a scientific action which also becomes an artistic performance. Then, before shooting, during the production phase, it is meticulously studied in detail, in colour and in settings. No elaboration takes place in the post-production phase. His works immediately fascinate and defy classification. The analysis and theoretical research and the scientific rigour of the technique are combined with the aesthetic quality of the photography. The spectator, watching the beautiful images, experiences different reactions, receives powerful suggestions, feels various sensations and perceptions, makes projections, interpretations and observations and realises insights. The non-expert public, looking at the photographs in the absence of explanations, wonder to which immense human depth the anatomical parts belong. They look for knowledge and free associations, evocations of new meanings and contemplation. The scientific and cognitive truth does not block the emotional freedom because abstraction and multiplicity offer an original chance through symbols. In the work called Celine–Jimmy
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Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc (2015) 23:629–635
Fig. 1 Pau Golano’ ‘Immersion’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
Choo Shoe (Fig. 2), the scientist Golanò takes a radiographic shot of a woman’s foot dressed with a very famous fashion shoe. In the photo known as Ballet dancer (Fig. 3), he presents an X-ray of a foot on tiptoe, as in the classical dance position. In Immersion (Fig. 1), he creates a faded, evanescent effect, as in all videos of the well-known American artist, Bill Viola. In Finger arteries (Fig. 4), the image evokes a mysterious natural hedge. In Intercondylar notch mirror (Fig. 5), a knee bone is reflected as in a lake, suggesting memories related to the myth of Narcissus. In The smallest bone (Fig. 6), a fingertip holds the stirrup bone and the difference in size and colour creates surprise. All the objects look like symbolic, fluctuating planets. In Sushi bone (Fig. 7), the bone tissue looks like Japanese sushi. In The cervical smile (Fig. 8), a vertebra appears to be smiling, evoking the first table of the famous Rorschach Test. In Trabecular bone (Fig. 9), the spectator can admire a wonderful sponge, while, in Knee mosaicoplasty (Fig. 10), he or she can find a gruyère cheese or a planet in space. The works of Pau Golanò transmit eternity and universality, as they show humanity in all its beauty, its true nature and depth. They provoke curiosity and perturb. In history, Leonardo Da Vinci represents the highest expression of the integration of art and science. In the world of contemporary art, many artists have taken inspiration
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Fig. 2 Pau Golano’ ‘Celine–Jimmy Choo Shoe X-ray’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc (2015) 23:629–635
Fig. 3 Pau Golano’ ‘Ballet Dancer X-ray’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
from science, medicine and, in particular, anatomy. Damien Hirst creates artworks with skulls and muscles. Marc Queen shows deformed or stripped human bodies. The American photographer and artist, Andres Serrano, has become notorious through his photos of corpses. In the case of Pau Golanò, art returns to science, as the latter proves to be art. The scientific works of Golanò become contemporary art, because, in a mysterious way, they are able to integrate universal elements of human existence with the illustration of primary biological aspects of the organism. Contemporary artists inspired by science tend to show the ugliness, while Pau Golanò expresses the immense beauty of life and of the human body. Representations of death resound with vital processes. Decoding an image extrapolated from a specific context obliges us to build unedited associations: a section of the brain may be compared to the branches of a tree, an articulation to a specular geometry, clusters of adipose molecules to serial modulations immersed in a kind of primordial soup. The figurative point of view is fascinating thanks to brilliant and maddening live colours, conveyed both by the sharpness of flesh, blood, tissues and nerve endings and by artificial lighting imprisoned at the time of the shot, X-rays, enlargements and contrast colours (Figs. 11, 12). The art of Golanò, resulting from a scientific, methodological rigour, surprises, amazes and astonishes. It gives
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Fig. 4 Pau Golano’ ‘Finger arteries’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
Fig. 5 Pau Golano’ ‘Intercondylar notch mirror’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
aesthetic and sensorial excitement, emotional involvement, but it is also a language of knowledge, because it explores the real universe and penetrates the human world in a
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Fig. 6 Pau Golano’ ‘The smallest bone’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
Fig. 7 Pau Golano’ ‘Sushi bone’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
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Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc (2015) 23:629–635
Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc (2015) 23:629–635
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Fig. 8 Pau Golano’ ‘The cervical smile’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
Fig. 9 Pau Golano’ ‘Trabecular bone’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
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Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc (2015) 23:629–635
Fig. 10 Pau Golano’ ‘Knee mosaicoplasty’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
tangible way. It elevates and highlights every anatomical detail and increases awareness. In the work of Pau Golanò, science and art are an equally significant component. Neither of them fully solves the mystery of the human body, and of life, but both, in full and fertile integration, open the horizons of knowledge and amazement: the pillars which hold the sense of art and of science as well. The scientific and artistic intentionality in Golanò’s works creates a constant tension between analytical research and aesthetic intuition. Each dimension becomes a pathway for penetrating reality by symbolic language. Golanò’s photos stimulate narrative, create points of view and angles of perspective. The objects have many ways of being. Scientific truth becomes relative, multiple and never final. The objects touch the mind and the heart, activate knowledge and emotion, stimulate the conquest of unknown lands and produce culture. Art and science are deeply human, like the works of Pau Golanò. They are part of life.
Fig. 11 Pau Golano’ ‘Knee (e)motion’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
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Acknowledgments Pau Golanò has entrusted the permanent exhibition of his photographs and videos and the curatorship of future exhibitions in the world to the Art and Science Videoinsight® Foundation http://www.fasv.it. Rebecca L. Russo is President of the Videoinsight® Foundation and Director of the Videoinsight® Center in Italy. She is the founder of the Videoinsight® Master’s Degree at the University of Bologna. She is a researcher, philanthropist, a writer, art lover and producer. She has a PhD in Relational and Systemic Psychotherapy.
Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc (2015) 23:629–635
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Fig. 12 Pau Golano’ ‘Point of view’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation She is one of the most important art collectors in Europe. Her Videoinsight® Collection’s curatorial line is based on selecting contemporary art that contains a high psychological impact and offers real psycho-diagnostic and psycho-therapeutic potential. She created the Videoinsight® Method, Videoinsight® Concepts and Videoinsight® Formats.
2. Russo R (2011) Videoinsight®. Healing with contemporary art. Silvana, Milan 3. Russo R (2011) Videoinsight®. Curare con l’arte contemporanea. Silvana, Milan 4. Russo R (2012) The Videoinsight® method. Postmedia Books, Milan
References 1. Russo R (2013) The Videoinsight® concept. e-book at Apple Store, CIC, Rome
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SPORTS MEDICINE
Art and science a unique world Rebecca Russo
Published online: 7 October 2014 © European Society of Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery, Arthroscopy (ESSKA) 2014
Can science be art? Anatomy as contemporary art? Pau Golanò reveals the mystery to us. The human body is also a wonderful work of art. It is the scientific and artistic object of Pau Golanò, an international star of anatomical photography in the medical field but also an exceptional genius and pure talent within the artistic field. The photography of Golanò is the fruit of the fertile integration between science and art, both aiming at the search for truth. In fact, in his work, the boundaries between scientific and artistic expertise are erased, in a fruitful mutual interaction. The extraordinary balance between life and death, reality and imagination, form and substance, matter and energy, light and shadow creates pictures of rare and sublime beauty. The photography of Golanò appears to regenerate and renew the body object, in itself inanimate, bringing it back to a new life. In 2013, the Art and Science Videoinsight® Foundation [1–4] launched the Catalan scientist Pau Golanò in the world of contemporary art, curating the first exhibition dedicated to him at a worldwide première at the Museum of Anatomical Waxes Luigi Cattaneo in Bologna. The exhibition, entitled Anatomia Profundae, presented eighteen photographs of extraordinary quality. They showed anatomical preparations reworked in a visionary and innovative key, endowed with fascinating symbolic power. The event was a huge success among audiences and critics. Golanò was recognised as an artist in the contemporary art system as well.
R. Russo (*) Art and Science Videoinsight® Foundation, Via Bonsignore 7, Turin, Italy e-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.fasv.it
The photography shown in Bologna in 2014, entitled Immersion (Fig. 1), won the European Fotciencia photography contest, organised by the Superior Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology. In October 2014, at the American University of Beirut (AUB), the Art and Science Videoinsight® Foundation curated the second exhibition dedicated to Pau Golanò, already an internationally renowned scientist and artist. The exhibition, entitled Life, comprised twenty photographs and a video installation of stunning beauty. Pau Golanò is a real artistic talent, combining creativity, knowledge, technical skills and aesthetics in an original way. His anatomical photography is a true masterpiece. The object is firstly physically prepared using a well established technique, through a scientific action which also becomes an artistic performance. Then, before shooting, during the production phase, it is meticulously studied in detail, in colour and in settings. No elaboration takes place in the post-production phase. His works immediately fascinate and defy classification. The analysis and theoretical research and the scientific rigour of the technique are combined with the aesthetic quality of the photography. The spectator, watching the beautiful images, experiences different reactions, receives powerful suggestions, feels various sensations and perceptions, makes projections, interpretations and observations and realises insights. The non-expert public, looking at the photographs in the absence of explanations, wonder to which immense human depth the anatomical parts belong. They look for knowledge and free associations, evocations of new meanings and contemplation. The scientific and cognitive truth does not block the emotional freedom because abstraction and multiplicity offer an original chance through symbols. In the work called Celine–Jimmy
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Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc (2015) 23:629–635
Fig. 1 Pau Golano’ ‘Immersion’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
Choo Shoe (Fig. 2), the scientist Golanò takes a radiographic shot of a woman’s foot dressed with a very famous fashion shoe. In the photo known as Ballet dancer (Fig. 3), he presents an X-ray of a foot on tiptoe, as in the classical dance position. In Immersion (Fig. 1), he creates a faded, evanescent effect, as in all videos of the well-known American artist, Bill Viola. In Finger arteries (Fig. 4), the image evokes a mysterious natural hedge. In Intercondylar notch mirror (Fig. 5), a knee bone is reflected as in a lake, suggesting memories related to the myth of Narcissus. In The smallest bone (Fig. 6), a fingertip holds the stirrup bone and the difference in size and colour creates surprise. All the objects look like symbolic, fluctuating planets. In Sushi bone (Fig. 7), the bone tissue looks like Japanese sushi. In The cervical smile (Fig. 8), a vertebra appears to be smiling, evoking the first table of the famous Rorschach Test. In Trabecular bone (Fig. 9), the spectator can admire a wonderful sponge, while, in Knee mosaicoplasty (Fig. 10), he or she can find a gruyère cheese or a planet in space. The works of Pau Golanò transmit eternity and universality, as they show humanity in all its beauty, its true nature and depth. They provoke curiosity and perturb. In history, Leonardo Da Vinci represents the highest expression of the integration of art and science. In the world of contemporary art, many artists have taken inspiration
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Fig. 2 Pau Golano’ ‘Celine–Jimmy Choo Shoe X-ray’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc (2015) 23:629–635
Fig. 3 Pau Golano’ ‘Ballet Dancer X-ray’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
from science, medicine and, in particular, anatomy. Damien Hirst creates artworks with skulls and muscles. Marc Queen shows deformed or stripped human bodies. The American photographer and artist, Andres Serrano, has become notorious through his photos of corpses. In the case of Pau Golanò, art returns to science, as the latter proves to be art. The scientific works of Golanò become contemporary art, because, in a mysterious way, they are able to integrate universal elements of human existence with the illustration of primary biological aspects of the organism. Contemporary artists inspired by science tend to show the ugliness, while Pau Golanò expresses the immense beauty of life and of the human body. Representations of death resound with vital processes. Decoding an image extrapolated from a specific context obliges us to build unedited associations: a section of the brain may be compared to the branches of a tree, an articulation to a specular geometry, clusters of adipose molecules to serial modulations immersed in a kind of primordial soup. The figurative point of view is fascinating thanks to brilliant and maddening live colours, conveyed both by the sharpness of flesh, blood, tissues and nerve endings and by artificial lighting imprisoned at the time of the shot, X-rays, enlargements and contrast colours (Figs. 11, 12). The art of Golanò, resulting from a scientific, methodological rigour, surprises, amazes and astonishes. It gives
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Fig. 4 Pau Golano’ ‘Finger arteries’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
Fig. 5 Pau Golano’ ‘Intercondylar notch mirror’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
aesthetic and sensorial excitement, emotional involvement, but it is also a language of knowledge, because it explores the real universe and penetrates the human world in a
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Fig. 6 Pau Golano’ ‘The smallest bone’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
Fig. 7 Pau Golano’ ‘Sushi bone’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
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Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc (2015) 23:629–635
Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc (2015) 23:629–635
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Fig. 8 Pau Golano’ ‘The cervical smile’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
Fig. 9 Pau Golano’ ‘Trabecular bone’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
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Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc (2015) 23:629–635
Fig. 10 Pau Golano’ ‘Knee mosaicoplasty’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
tangible way. It elevates and highlights every anatomical detail and increases awareness. In the work of Pau Golanò, science and art are an equally significant component. Neither of them fully solves the mystery of the human body, and of life, but both, in full and fertile integration, open the horizons of knowledge and amazement: the pillars which hold the sense of art and of science as well. The scientific and artistic intentionality in Golanò’s works creates a constant tension between analytical research and aesthetic intuition. Each dimension becomes a pathway for penetrating reality by symbolic language. Golanò’s photos stimulate narrative, create points of view and angles of perspective. The objects have many ways of being. Scientific truth becomes relative, multiple and never final. The objects touch the mind and the heart, activate knowledge and emotion, stimulate the conquest of unknown lands and produce culture. Art and science are deeply human, like the works of Pau Golanò. They are part of life.
Fig. 11 Pau Golano’ ‘Knee (e)motion’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation
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Acknowledgments Pau Golanò has entrusted the permanent exhibition of his photographs and videos and the curatorship of future exhibitions in the world to the Art and Science Videoinsight® Foundation http://www.fasv.it. Rebecca L. Russo is President of the Videoinsight® Foundation and Director of the Videoinsight® Center in Italy. She is the founder of the Videoinsight® Master’s Degree at the University of Bologna. She is a researcher, philanthropist, a writer, art lover and producer. She has a PhD in Relational and Systemic Psychotherapy.
Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc (2015) 23:629–635
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Fig. 12 Pau Golano’ ‘Point of view’ 2013 photo credit Videoinsight® Foundation She is one of the most important art collectors in Europe. Her Videoinsight® Collection’s curatorial line is based on selecting contemporary art that contains a high psychological impact and offers real psycho-diagnostic and psycho-therapeutic potential. She created the Videoinsight® Method, Videoinsight® Concepts and Videoinsight® Formats.
2. Russo R (2011) Videoinsight®. Healing with contemporary art. Silvana, Milan 3. Russo R (2011) Videoinsight®. Curare con l’arte contemporanea. Silvana, Milan 4. Russo R (2012) The Videoinsight® method. Postmedia Books, Milan
References 1. Russo R (2013) The Videoinsight® concept. e-book at Apple Store, CIC, Rome
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