Katabasis

Katabasis is a work in which Grzegorz Klaman explores the relationships between the body, power and knowledge. His pursuits are inspired by the writings of Michel Foucault as well as the essay Metafizyka mięsa [The Metaphysics of Meat] (1992) by Jolanta Brach-Czaina. The installation, whose title refers to a descent into an abyss, consists of three steel cases housing human body parts preserved in formaldehyde: an eye, an ear and a tongue. These organs are accompanied by a gas tank with a burner and a sound recording of voice training.

Critics and the artist alike underscore the significance of the anatomical specimens being borrowed from medicine and brought into the realm of art. This decontextualisation can be seen as a reinstatement of the body’s symbolic meaning, which has been appropriated by medicine. Here, science is treated as an instrument of authority, which produces knowledge for the purpose of controlling society. Research in transplantation, genetics and embryology requires financial outlays, and these fields are associated with an increasing degree of corporate influence in medicine. They are also perceived as factors that can contribute to changes in life not only in the biological but also the social and economic sense. Hence, the body loses its autonomy and becomes an object and (indirectly) a manipulation tool.

Pieces in which Klaman uses anatomical specimens spark widespread controversy. The artist has been accused of desecrating art and defiling the human body. Critics who support him, on the other hand, have praised his efforts to bring to light the many unaddressed problems emerging at the point where science and power overlap. Katabasis raises many questions in areas such as history, culture and bioethics. We can inquire about the meaning behind the artist’s use of anatomical specimens in art, but also about art annexing the body just as science does. Preserved organs have always enjoyed special interest within both fields, being exhibited in curiosity cabinets and later, like works of art, in museums. What place do Klaman’s works occupy in the long tradition of cultural interpretation of the body? This and many other questions are still awaiting the arrival of a researcher to study them.

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