Liat Danieli, born in 1983, is a cum laude graduate of B.Ed.F.A. in Art and Art Education from Hamidrasha Faculty of the Arts, Beit Berl Collage. She is a multidisciplinary artist specializing in installations comprising sound, sculpture, video, digital media, and Bio Art. She lives and works in Tel Aviv
The relationship between science and art has always played a significant role in my creative process – as they are two parallel mediums striving to materialize creation. As I see it, science looks for answers where art asks the questions. Throughout the history of art, we can see the juxtaposition of the two dating back to the Renaissance period, known for its significant influence on the artistic world, manifested in the contribution of architects, sculptors, painters, and multidisciplinary talents such as Leonardo Da Vinci.
The term Bio Art was coined in the late 1990's by the Brazilian artist Eduardo Kac, who dealt with the connections between art and various types of technology. He is particularly known for his work in integrating various codes into genetic sequences, in a way that addressed ethical and scientific dilemmas. As a field, Bio Art tends to examine the boundary between the laboratory and the studio, highlighting aspects related to aesthetics and nature, which have also shared a traditional bond throughout the history of art.
One of the purposes in my work is to breathe life into materials; to grant them eternal life by solving the mechanism composing them. I sometimes use specialized artificial surroundings to grow various lifeforms, while at other times I merely emulate these surroundings symbolically. I strive to discuss the question of the artist's space and the artistic locus of activity by moving the studio into the laboratory. This removal draws a comparison between the lust for creativity and the desire for creation.
My work centers on research. The research is primarily based on fields of science and methods of presenting knowledge. I build experiments on materials and graft the organic and the synthetic. I create autonomous life-emulating systems that question their true or artificial existence. In recent installations I have worked with fungi and bacteria, intervening through time, as a key component of biology. As an artist I chose to deal with super organisms (bees, fungi, and micro-organisms) because as groups they display behavior that is coordinated – almost like that of a single living organism. This behavior allows me to study them as a material possessing a predetermined mechanism.
