Le phénomène Kac ou les difficultés de l’audace

Abstract

An extreme case of innovation can be found in the works of Eduardo Kac, a contemporary American-Brazilian artist and poet whose career has evolved from holopoetry to digital poetry (« Letter », 1996) and biopoetry. In his artistic creations, Eduardo Kac’s audacity disrupts our analogical reading habits by imposing new disturbing semiotic systems. Most of Kac’s transgenic creations composed of micro-organisms, animals or plants are purposefully ethically questionable, considered as groundbreaking and scandalous, « perfidious and destabilizing » (Galerie Charlot, 2010). Among them, we will find his latest spatial and artistic collaboration with Thomas Pesquet (Le Téléscope intérieur, 2017). Although his works are partially dependent upon technical and technological means, these creations are audacious since they are expanding artistic frontiers. Or shall we seek for their value elsewhere? The main originality of these interdisciplinary artworks may lie in what Eduardo Kac calls a « semiologic continuum » (Ecrire avec le Vivant) or in the possibilities offered by the « infranumerical pole » (Colette Tron).