Jarosław Czarnecki aka Elvin Flamingo „The Symbiosity of Creation”

Symbiosity is a word drawn from the phenomenon of symbiosis, which, in nature, is the strict co-existence of two organ-isms that is advantageous to at least one of them. Symbiosity in psychology is a relationship based on dependence. Creation, understood as art, is a concept linked with human activity that often also exhibits signs of dependence. The work by Jarosław Czarnecki (Elvin Flamingo) did not initially bear the title of The Symbiosity of Creation. The departure from the original title of the work that included the word laboratory, in which the central figure is a laboratory technician, was not only the result of the unanticipated development of the project, but above all the transformation in the thinking of the artist himself. While it is true that in breeding exotic ants Czarnecki’s intention was to create a ”film living its own life”, it wasn’t obvious to him that he the artist would become part of the ant colony. The daily hours of caring for the ants, acquiring the knowledge necessary for implementing the project, crossing the boundaries of disciplines, consultations with entomologists, insect breeders, and BioArt artists and art theoreticians all became and remain part of this con-tinuing project. What we see at the Gdańsk City Gallery (GGM1) and the Wyspa Institute of Art (ISW) is just one stage of the project. Two parts of the work are presented at GGM1: Kingdom of the Shared Quotidian one incubator inha-bited by weaver ants, Oecophylla smaragdina and Subterranean Struggle examples of unsuccessful attempts to start colonies. The most extensive part of the project, Reconstruction of Non-human Culture, comprising four interconnected incubators inhabited by one colony of leaf cutter ants, Atta sexdens, will be exhibited at ISW. Although exhibited at different locations, the project is presented in its entirety with Internet streaming. Viewers at the Gallery will also be at the Institute, and vice versa. Digital transmission is available at the project website www.elvinflamingo.com.

The complex layers of the project are most aptly described by the artist himself, as he writes in his doctoral dissertation:

”The process of The Symbiosity of Creation doesn’t have just one author. In all parts of this work, although most of the effort to build and expand my installation-incubators was and will continue to be supplied by me, in the early stages of the work I was forced into the position of co-creator, or even just one of the ”workers” creating the installation, and this was by no means my decision as an artist. My lifestyle, my views of the world and human responsibility, my understanding of the analogy between humans and non-humans, and my normal everyday reality underwent diametrical change. I found the shared quotidian.”

Iwona Bigos

Jarosław Czarnecki’s / Elvin Flamingo’s solo exhibition is the prize for winning the Gdańsk Biennale Sztuki 2012, initiated and organized by Gdańsk City Gallery.