HELL OF GNOSIS

SMRk+ Group Exhibition

Individual works by Grzegorz Klaman, Piotr Mosur, Wojtek Radtke, and Maciej Śmietański were presented, along with the titular collective piece Hell of Gnosis.

As part of the exhibition, I showed the work “Knocked-out exile” addressing the topic of xenogenic transplantation (first transplants published in 2022).

“Knocked-out exile.”

For just over fifty years, humans have been dying differently than all other living organisms. When we cut down a tree, we consider it dead the moment the flow of fluids inside its roots, trunk, and leaves ceases — that is, when it can no longer supply water and minerals. Similarly, an animal dies when its heart stops beating and blood circulation ends — thus oxygen and nutrients can no longer be transported. Only humans, since 1967, die differently. Human death no longer requires cessation of blood circulation; death of the brainstem, the organ regulating other organs, ends our biological life. To an outsider or non-specialist, a human still lives — the heart beats, blood flows, and the body reflexively responds to stimuli. Advances in our understanding of dying physiology allowed for this redefinition of death. But the timing is no coincidence: 1967 was the year Christiaan Barnard performed the first heart transplant. Suddenly, there was a need to procure organs to save the lives of others. States had to respond to this scientific progress. Medicine had outpaced ethical discourse and the development of thanatology (the study of death). To avoid taking responsibility, states used scientists. At Harvard University, a committee of bioethicists and doctors convened to redefine death. Robert Ebert, Dean of Harvard Medical School, wrote in a letter to the committee:
“You want to redefine death in order to facilitate obtaining suitable organs for transplant patients.”

But today it is the pig returning from exile. The stigmatization that made it an unclean animal turns into hope for new life. “Knock-out pigs” — animals genetically modified to lack 1,3-galactosyltransferase — have been used as kidney donors for humans. The human immune system does not recognize such a kidney as foreign. Estimated demand for such organs is expected to generate a market worth 14 billion USD per year in 5-7 years. Lindsay Anderson’s surreal vision from the early 1970s — a man with an animal torso — is becoming reality. What once seemed a nightmare and a crime committed by mad scientist-doctors now brings hope for extending life and health. Is humanity ready for this? How will we solve ethical problems? Will the arbitrary declaration of brainstem death, which began the transplantation era, now give us the pretext to use another species for our health? Noel, Angel, Star, Joy, and Mary — five pigs that initiate a new chapter in history — such deliberate names. Cloaked in pretty words, these figures once again sweep the ethical discourse under the rug.

Could it be that united humanity can solve any problem in a year or two? The atomic bomb ended a war, vaccines ended the COVID pandemic. But does this not also open a modern Pandora’s box? When I was in Ghana, I wanted to see monkeys, elephants, giraffes, snakes… but they were gone. I asked: Where are they? “We ate them,” replied the mayor of Takoradi. That’s your posthumanism... Once everyone had a pig to survive the winter. In a few years, “having a pig” will mean something completely different… though it will still help you survive. If you can afford it...

Photographic documentation by Dominik Kulaszewicz