Organic materiality in the 20th century art-plants and animals (Human and Non-Human) from representation to materialisation

The aim of this research is to focus on organic materiality in the 20th century art, for its appearance as a protagonist element presented in an artwork for what it actually is rather than as a mere component or instrument for chromatic or decorative purposes. By examining some works and specific case studies, organic materiality is suggested as a filter, and also as a sketch of a method to introduce the elaboration of a problem not to be solved, but to be left open to a variety of possibilities. Regarding the geographical span, this research has an international scope, mainly covering the artistic production carried out in Europe, Northern and Southern America, and Japan in some cases. In this sense, this work assumes its inevitable incompleteness as an attempt to find a place into a pluralistic theoretical discourse in art, and more specifically contemporary art, putting at its core matter as a matter of concern. The present investigation focuses on a kind of materiality that is, organic in the primal meaning of the term, in other words, an adjective “relating to or derived from living matter.” Therefore, in order to present the organic materiality of plants and animals (human and non-human) and their interactions with the 20th century art this research, over its chapters, counts on the contributions of history of science and medicine, and philosophical approaches such as philosophy of nature, philosophy of Vitalism, and philosophical anthropology. Moreover, the cycle of life of organic materiality became not only the object of research but also the method to study 20th century art from the point of view selected for this work, whose division in five chapters reflects this “organic method.” Proposing a spiral curve from birth, through youth, maturity, ageing and death with the increase of advanced technology and dissemination of digital media, the apparent disappearance of the organic, seems rather to propose a reformulation of its meaning. Motivated by contemporary artistic practices carried out in the first years of the 21st century, this research aim to understand the organic in the past century, investigating it from a theoretical point of view, but somehow by asking the organic materiality itself. In other words, the question on the levels of the organic and the human is developed by interrogating the same organic into artworks, not represented but presented, materialised

Plantar es político: prácticas artísticas ambientales en el espacio público

Durante la larga década de 1960, en un contexto de movilización política activa, se propusieron diferentes alternativas para construir e impulsar valores basados en la igualdad social, la sustentabilidad ambiental, la educación y el concepto de ciudadanía. Estos valores se expresaron en forma de estéticas dialógicas y colectivas; hubo artistas que adoptaron el acto de plantar en el espacio público como una afirmación de oportunidades igualitarias y creciente solidaridad, un acto libre de cualquier interés económico. En el presente artículo exploro sucintamente cuatro casos de intervenciones artísticas realizadas entre la década de 1970 y principios de la de 1980 en Estados Unidos y Europa: Bonnie Ora Sherk y su acto de esculpir una granja viviente bajo una autovía, el proyecto de bosque urbano de Alan Sonfist, la escultura ambiental de Agnes Denes y la intervención de Joseph Beuys encaminada hacia la plantación de una nueva sociedad.In the context of an active political engagement during the long 1960s, by proposing alternative possibilities with which to construct values such as equality, environmental sustainability, education, and citizenship in the form of dialogical and connective aesthetics, some artists adopted the act of planting in urban spaces as an affirmation of equal opportunities and growing solidarity—an act free from economic interest. In this sense, the act of planting served the purpose of enhancing the growth of a new society, as a constructive response in reaction to a given societal structure. In this article I explore some case studies, developed in United States and Europe, by the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s. Bonnie Ora Sherk and her act of sculpting a Living Farm at a Crossroad; Alan Sonfist’s Forest in the City, “Time Landscape”; the environmental sculpture of Agnes Denes, and Joseph Beuys actions towards the planting of a new societ

Tocilizumab for patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. The single-arm TOCIVID-19 prospective trial

BackgroundTocilizumab blocks pro-inflammatory activity of interleukin-6 (IL-6), involved in pathogenesis of pneumonia the most frequent cause of death in COVID-19 patients.MethodsA multicenter, single-arm, hypothesis-driven trial was planned, according to a phase 2 design, to study the effect of tocilizumab on lethality rates at 14 and 30 days (co-primary endpoints, a priori expected rates being 20 and 35%, respectively). A further prospective cohort of patients, consecutively enrolled after the first cohort was accomplished, was used as a secondary validation dataset. The two cohorts were evaluated jointly in an exploratory multivariable logistic regression model to assess prognostic variables on survival.ResultsIn the primary intention-to-treat (ITT) phase 2 population, 180/301 (59.8%) subjects received tocilizumab, and 67 deaths were observed overall. Lethality rates were equal to 18.4% (97.5% CI: 13.6-24.0, P=0.52) and 22.4% (97.5% CI: 17.2-28.3, P<0.001) at 14 and 30 days, respectively. Lethality rates were lower in the validation dataset, that included 920 patients. No signal of specific drug toxicity was reported. In the exploratory multivariable logistic regression analysis, older age and lower PaO2/FiO2 ratio negatively affected survival, while the concurrent use of steroids was associated with greater survival. A statistically significant interaction was found between tocilizumab and respiratory support, suggesting that tocilizumab might be more effective in patients not requiring mechanical respiratory support at baseline.ConclusionsTocilizumab reduced lethality rate at 30 days compared with null hypothesis, without significant toxicity. Possibly, this effect could be limited to patients not requiring mechanical respiratory support at baseline.Registration EudraCT (2020-001110-38); clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04317092)