The Art of Post-anthropocentrism: Concepts, Challenges, Dilemmas

Authors

  • Ryszard W. Kluszczyński

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26485/AI/2025/27/19

Keywords:

Anthropocene, ecological art, holobiont, post-anthropocentrism, symbiontic art, territory, transdisciplinary art, non-human creativity.

Abstract

Posthumanism and post-anthropocentrism have significantly impacted the most important aspects of the art paradigm, transforming the concept of artistic creation and creating new challenges for its audience. By proposing different rules for governing the relationship between humans and non-human entities than in the traditional humanist system, they lead to the formation of new concepts of creative agency, to the transformation of the nature and status of the artwork, as well as to changes in the characteristics of its reception. Aesthetics and art theory, which have undergone numerous upheavals since the mid-twentieth century, are thus
exposed to new challenges. In this article, I look at selected processes from this field and consider some theoretical concepts and the artistic practices that have evolved from them, and which have had a significant impact on the formation of a new situation in the field of art. In particular, I examine the issues of the Anthropocene, territory, holobiont and transgenic creation, focusing on several exhibitions presented in recent years that address the indicated issues and present related art trends, as well as citing and analysing selected works from the field.

Author Biography

Ryszard W. Kluszczyński

PhD, Professor of Cultural and Art Studies. At the University of Łódź, he works at the Department of New Media and Digital Culture. Director of the Transdisciplinary Centre for Artistic and Scientific Research at the University of Łódź. Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. In his works, he deals with the issues of new media art and cyberculture, as well as art theory and its latest trends, with a special focus on the problems of the relationship between art, science, technology and politics. Author or co-author of numerous books. Curator of multiple international exhibitions and art projects. Between 1990 and 2001, he was the Chief Curator of Film, Video and Multimedia Arts at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw. Curator of the International Biennale of Contemporary Art Mediation, Poznań 2009–2010. From 2010 to 2024, artistic director of the international programme Art+Science Meeting at Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdańsk.

References

Asgari Sassan (2014) Chapter Ten – Epigenetic Modifications Underlying Symbiont-Host Interactions, “Advances in Genetics”, vol. 86, pp. 253-276.

Baedeker Jan, Fábregas-Tejeda Alejandro, Nieves Delgado Abigail (2020) The Holobiont Concept Before Margulis, “Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution”, vol. 334, no. 3, pp. 149-155. [https://doi.org/10.1002/jez.b.22931](https://doi.org/10.1002/jez.b.22931).

Ball Mieke (2002) *Travelling Concepts in the Humanities. A Rough Guide*, Toronto–Buffalo–London: University of Toronto Press.

Bourriaud Nicolas (2022) *Planet B. Climate Change and the New Sublime*, Dijon: Les presses du réel.

Bourriaud Nicolas (1998) *Relational Aesthetics*, Dijon: Les presses du réel.

Chiu Lynn, Gilbert Scott F. (2020) Niche construction and the transition to herbivory: Phenotype switching and the organisation of new nutritional modes, [in:] H. Levine, M. K. Jolly, P. Kulkarni, V. Nanjundiah, eds., *Phenotypic Switching: Implications in Biology and Medicine*, New York: Academic Press, pp. 459-482.

Douglas Angela E., Werren John H. (2016) Holes in the hologenome: why host-microbe symbioses are not holobionts, “MBio”, vol. 7, iss. 2, online [https://journals.asm.org/doi/epub/10.1128/mbio.02099-15](https://journals.asm.org/doi/epub/10.1128/mbio.02099-15).

Hilton Leon J. (2013) The Horse in my Flesh: Transspecies Performance and Affective Athleticism, “GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies”, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 487-514.

Jones Caroline A. (2022) Symbiontics: A Polemics for our Time, [in:] *Symbionts: Contemporary Artists and the Biosphere*, eds. C. A. Jones, N. Bell, S. Nimrod, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, pp. 13-49.

Kerasovitis Konstantinos (2020) Post Qualitative Research – Reality through the Antihierarchical Assemblage of non-Calculation, “The Qualitative Report”, vol. 25, no. 13, pp. 56-70.

Kluszczyński Ryszard W. (2012) The Aesthetics of Reason and Care, [in:] ed. R. W. Kluszczyński, *Crude Life: The Tissue Culture & Art Project. Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr*, Gdańsk: Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, pp. 72-91.

Kluszczyński Ryszard W. (2015) Hybrot art – Intermedia Creative Practices in the Postbiological Era, [in:] ed. R. W. Kluszczyński, *Guy Ben-Ary: Nervoplastica. Bio-robotic Art and its Cultural Contexts*, Gdańsk: Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, pp. 168-243.

Kluszczyński Ryszard W. (2020a) Art and the Challenge of the Anthropocene, [in:] ed. R. W. Kluszczyński, *Towards a Non-Anthropocentric Ecology. Victoria Vesna and Art in the World of the Anthropocene*, Gdańsk–Łódź: Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art – Łódź University Press, pp. 238-279.

Kluszczyński Ryszard W. (2020b) Looking at the World through the Eyes of the Other? Art as Non-Anthropocentric Ecology, [in:] ed. R. W. Kluszczyński, *Towards a Non-Anthropocentric Ecology. Victoria Vesna and Art in the World of the Anthropocene*, Gdańsk–Łódź: Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art – Łódź University Press, pp. 6-27.

Kluszczyński Ryszard W., ed. (2021a) *Beyond Borders. Processed Body – Expanded Brain – Distributed Agency*, second edition, supplemented with illustrations, Gdańsk–Łódź: Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art – Łódź University Press.

Kluszczyński Ryszard W. (2021b) Transdisciplinarity: Art, Science, the Humanities, and Politics, [in:] ed. R. W. Kluszczyński, *Beyond Borders. Processed Body – Expanded Brain – Distributed Agency*, second edition, supplemented with illustrations, Gdańsk–Łódź: Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art – Łódź University Press, pp. 302-327.

Kluszczyński Ryszard W. (2021c) The Work of Art as a Collection. Violence, Death and Loss in the Art of Luz María Sánchez, “Art Inquiry”, vol. XXIII, pp. 283-288.

Kluszczyński Ryszard W. (2025) Artificial Intelligence – A New Medium of Art, [in:] ed. P. Andrade et al., *Unveiling Diverse Heritages of Otherness*, New York–Singapore: Springer.

Latour Bruno (2024) *How to Inhabit the Earth: Interviews with Nicolas Truong*, Cambridge: Polity.

Lovelock James (1979) *Gaia. A New Look at Life on Earth*, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Margulis Lynn, Fester René (1991) *Symbiosis as a Source of Evolutionary Innovation: Speciation and Morphogenesis*, Cambridge: MIT Press.

Matyssek Rainer, Lüttge Ulrich (2013) Gaia: The Planet Holobiont, “Nova Acta Leopoldina”, no. 391, pp. 325-344.

Meyer-Abich Adolf (1943) Beiträge zur Theorie der Evolution der Organismen. I. Das typologische Grundgesetz und seine Folgerungen für Phylogenie und Entwicklungsphysiologie, “Acta Biotheoretica”, no. 7, pp. 1-80.

“Open Rivers” (2016), vol. 3 (*Water, Art & Ecology*).

Ptqk Maria, ed. (2021) *Science Friction. Life Among Companion Species*, Barcelona: CCCB.

Reichle Ingeborg, ed. (2021) *Plastic Ocean: Art and Science Responses to Marine Pollution*, Berlin–Boston: De Gruyter.

Scott Jill (2021) Reflections on Visual Perception, [in:] R. W. Kluszczyński, ed., *Beyond Borders. Processed Body – Expanded Brain – Distributed Agency*, second edition, supplemented with illustrations, Gdańsk–Łódź: Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art – Łódź University Press, pp. 132-151.

Srivastava Pragati, Sahgal Manvika, Dasila Hemant (2023) Microbial Symbiosis in Marine Ecosystem, [in:] R. Soni, D. C. Suyal, L. Morales-Oyervides, M. Fouillaud, eds., *Current Status of Marine Water Microbiology*, Singapore: Springer.

Jones Caroline A., Nimrod Selby, Bell Natalie, eds. (2022) *Symbionts: Contemporary Artists and the Biosphere*, Cambridge: MIT Press.

Thacker Eugene (2004) *Biomedia*, Minneapolis–London: University of Minnesota Press.

Vesna Victoria, Nacher Anna (2020) Diving Deep into the Blue Planet, Flying High into the Cosmos, [in:] R. W. Kluszczyński, ed., Towards a Non-Anthropocentric Ecology. Victoria Vesna and Art in the World of the Anthropocene, Gdańsk–Łódź: Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art – Łódź University Press, pp. 172–237.

Weibel Peter (2019) Open Codes. The World as a Field of Data, Karlsruhe: ZKM.

Wood-Charlson Elisha M., Marine symbioses: metazoans and microbes, [in:] S. A. Levin, ed., Encyc-lopedia of biodiversity, 2nd edition, New York: Academic, pp. 116–126.

Downloads

Published

2025-12-17

Issue

Section

Part IV. Reflections and Future Visions - ARTICLES