PROJECT DIRECTOR Pat Badani “Al Grano” (grain) evaluates the

PROJECT DIRECTOR
Pat Badani
The project is supported by “The Robert Heinecken Trust Fund”
“Al Grano” (grain) evaluates the idealized vision of scientific and technological
progress, and questions the rush by agribusiness to produce genetically modified
maize to supply the needs of an expanding agricultural industry without consideration of the chain of unbalances caused: impoverished lands, water depletion,
the demise of small-scale farmers and agro-ecological methods, obesity in the
USA yet starvation in developing countries.
“Al Grano” is a multi-year and multi-sited project in which I use a small grain of
corn to inspect monumental debates about genetically modified technology. A
series of parallel projects are nested in “Al Grano.” Each project addresses a
specific aspect of a phenomenon that creates unbalance, deconstruction and
crisis in a myriad of interconnected registers: political, economic, social and ecological.
Some of these nested projects are:
AlGrano::CornRegime; AlGrano::SugarDaddy; AlGrano::CropCroppingSugarDaddy; and AlGrano::BalancingAct. The projects integrate photography,
video, animation, and electronic media. They take on several incarnations: split
screen dcocumentary videos; pieces that are accessible via small, mobile devises
like smartphones and tablets; large-scale urban projections onto public buildings; interventions in public spaces (supermarkets, schools...); gallery installations; and research essays.
ISEA 2011 - ISTANBUL
17th International Symposium on Electronic Art
Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey.
September 14th to 21st.
http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/ms.badani
Symposium panel:
“Bacteria to Elephants: Practices of Bioart.”
Essay published:
http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/ms.badani
Author: Pat Badani
Essay title: “A maze about maize: An Amerindian divinity and its
transgenic avatars.”
Keywords: Maize, biodiversity, monocultures, sustainable technologies, agro-practices, plant-science, indigenous cultures, the Americas.
Abstract: The paper discusses a project that explores biodiversity at
the intersection of ancient and contemporary sciences and technologies of maize. Presented as a multimodal project incorporating
electronic media, the project is designed as a maze about maize,
because nothing is clear-cut or simple when it comes to the pros and
cons of agro-practices today. The complex foundational issues and
convoluted stakes derive from history, ethnology, sociology, biopolitics, law and intellectual property, agronomy, ecology, science, and
technology of maize.
In conference screening: “Al Grano-Corn Regime” split-screen video
work-in-progress for a multi-channel, synched, video installation.
BALANCE::UNBALANCE 2011
Hexagram Center for Research/Creation in Media
Arts and Technology
Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.
November 4th & 5th
http://balance-unbalance2011.hexagram.ca/
Symposium panel:
“Changing Environments.”
Abstract published:
http://balance-unbalance2011.hexagram.ca/?page_id=304
Author: Pat Badani
Essay title: “Sustainable agriculture / Sustainable culture.”
Keywords: Maize, biodiversity, monocultures, sustainable technologies, agro-practices, plant-science, polycultivation, indigenous
cultures, the Americas.
Abstract: The paper discusses “Al Grano,” a transdisipinary projectin-progress that examines the politics of food and GM technology
using as lens: maize cultivation, technology, trade and border
crossings at the intersection of ancient and contemporary sciences
and technologies. The focus is on the livelihood struggles of maize
growers in Mexico – center of origin, domestication and biodiversity of maize – and the balance/unbalance created by environmentally sustainable and exploitative agro-practices today.
In conference screening: “Al Grano-Corn Regime” split-screen video
work-in-progress for a multi-channel, synched, video installation.
Nouvelle revue d'esthétique #8 /
LA DISPARITION DE L’OEUVRE
(ISBN : 978-2-13-058728-6)
December 2011
“Culture transgénique et art global : le projet Al
Grano de Pat Badani”
(Transgenic culture and global art : The Al Grano
project by Pat Badani)
Scholarly article:
“Culture transgénique et art global : le projet Al Grano de Pat
Badani”. (Transgenic culture and global art : The Al Grano project by
Pat Badani)
Author: Catherine Bédard-Arasse
Journal’s theme: “La disparition de l’ouvre.”
Abstract: “Transgenic culture and global art” explores the geopolitical
dimension of art and the stakes involved in interdisciplinary practices
and globalization in “Al Grano”, a project by artist Pat Badani. Taking as
point of departure a small yet complex pod: a grain of maize that not
only symbolizes the quintessence of Mexican identity but also represents the source of macro-profits for agri-business and the food industry, the artist elaborates an uncanny work, one that appears as fitful
representation of today’s world. “Al Grano” circumscribes the environment of an object that addresses various fields of inquiry related to
identity, to the alimentary, the economy, the political, the ethical, the
symbolic. Inside this large circle, there is a labyrinth with, perhaps, a
way out.
The text analyses “Al Grano” as a new hybrid art-work that develops in
accordance with the play on words intimated in its title “a maze about
maize”. “Al Grano” is a work dealing with the question of material
heritage and the gamble between immaterial and virtual worlds
whose contours delineate a neutralized environment.”
Catherine Bédard-Arasse
is an art historian, curator and
art critic. She holds degrees
both from the University of
Montréal and from the EHESS in
Paris (School of Higher Studies
in Social Sciences). She specializes in contemporary Canadian
art, and is particularly interested
in the representation of frontiers
and in the association that
contemporary artworks maintain with the larger framework
of art history. Organizer of over
sixty monographic and collective exhibitions, she has also
authored over fifty exhibition
catalogues. She is currently
Deputy-Director of the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris
where she has been in charge of
the exhibition program since
1993. Additionally, Catherine
Bédard is a lecturer at the
“Université Paris III-Sorbonne
Nouvelle” where she teaches
“geopolitics of art”.
/Russia
-Kansk International Video Festival, August 17-25, 2012, Moscow, Russia.
-Budapest International, Shortfilm Festival, September 5-9, 2012, Hungary.
-Fine Art Film Festival, October 11-14, 2012, Szolnok, Hungary.
-ExTeresa Arte Actual, October 18 &19, 2012, Mexico City, Mexico.
VIDEO GUERRILHA - BRAZIL
November - December 2012
Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro & Brasilia
Visualfram, Video Guerrilha & Video in the Built Environment (v1b3), collaborate in a large urban intervention interacting with architecture and public spaces in Sao Paulo, Rio de
Janeiro and Brasilia. Through unprecedented, large format
projections, the Video Guerrilha Festival promotes cultural and
artistic exchange among international media curators and
artists while providing a unique experience to citizens and
spectators.
Al Grano:: Crop-Cropping Sugar Daddy is part of this projection
series in Brazil.
“Al Grano” (grain) is a multi-year and multi-sited project in which I use a small grain of corn to
inspect monumental debates about genetically modified technology. Parallel projects nested in “Al
Grano” address different aspects of a phenomenon that creates unbalance, deconstruction and
crisis in a myriad of interconnected registers. One of these nested projects is the video CropCropping Sugar Daddy. The title plays with the words –crop and cropping– used in agriculture as
well as in digital art practices.