What can come of combining biotechnology with art? After years of fruitful, unofficial cooperation between Elvin Flamingo (a bioart artist) and the University of Gdańsk, cooperation between art and science has gained a formal dimension. On January 20, 2025, an agreement was signed between the Department of Intermedia of the Faculty of Sculpture and Intermedia of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk and the Inter-University Faculty of Biotechnology of the University of Gdańsk and the Medical University of Gdańsk.
‘The scope of cooperation enshrined in the agreement is very broad,’ comments dr hab. Jarosław Czarnecki, prof. ASP (known under the artistic pseudonym Elvin Flamingo) in social media. The cooperation between the universities will involve, among other things, organising inter-university exhibitions, workshops, seminars, conferences and discussion panels, as well as jointly teaching students.
The signatories to the agreement were the Rector of the University of Gdańsk, prof. dr hab. Piotr Stepnowski, and the Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, prof. dr hab. Adam Świerżewski. The following were also involved in the project (which resulted in the signing of the agreement): prof. dr hab. Ewa Łojkowska, dr hab . Ewelina Król, prof. UG, prof. dr hab . inż. Aleksandra Królicka, dr Anna Kawiak, dr n. med. inż. Dorota Pomorska and prof. dr hab. Jarosław Marszałek.
---
Dr hab. Jarosław Czarnecki, prof. ASP (Elvin Flamingo) works in the Department of Intermedia at the Faculty of Sculpture and Intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. He runs the Biomedia Method Laboratory, a joint project of the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology UG and MUG and the Department of Intermedia of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. To date, he has carried out many projects in collaboration with the University of Gdańsk, particularly with the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology UG and MUG. These are realisations on the borderline between art and science, with a particular focus on bioart projects, among which we can mention, for example, ‘The Symbiosity of Creation’ (realised in collaboration with the University of Gdańsk's Faculty of Biology in 2017-2018) or the joint art and science project by Flamingo and PhD student Jowita Nowakowska-Gołacka, included in the materials of the online exhibition ‘Gdańsk 2020’. He also conducted meetings with IFB UG and MUG students and staff on the assumptions and implementation of his projects, including the lecture Symsagittifera roscoffensis as a Main Actor* of The Plant~Animals ~ Symbiosity of Creation (delivered jointly with Professor of Biological Sciences Xavier Bailly).
