Académie vivante - session 1

L’Académie vivante (Living Academy) is a new exper­i­mental Research Laboratory estab­lished for three years in the Epigenetics and Cell Fate unit (CNRS / Université Paris Diderot), in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Bétonsalon - Centre for Art and Research.
L’Académie vivante invites twice a year an artist to direct a research those theme is chosen by the artist. Developping their the­matics with a tem­po­rary team over two to six months, the artists have access to other sci­en­tific lab­o­ra­to­ries and lead an exper­i­mental edu­ca­tional pro­gram designed for researchers, stu­dents and much as for the broader audi­ence.
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L’Académie vivante opens its first ses­sion (January-June 2016) with the artists Melissa Dubbin and Aaron S. Davidson.
The research theme chosen by the artists tackles the notion of "Metabolism" and what it implies as much in the field of art, as in sci­en­tific dis­ci­plines as Epigenetics.
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Melissa Dubbin and Aaron S. Davidson have co-authored a body of works pro­ducing forms, objects, images and expe­ri­ences, equally incor­po­rating the mediums of pho­tog­raphy, video, sound, per­for­mance, instal­la­tion, drawing, sculp­ture and artists books since they began working together in 1998. 
They took part to the last Bétonsalon’s exhi­bi­tion « Co-workers : Beyond Disaster » (Paris, 2015-2016); « Some Artists’ Artists » at Marian Goodman Gallery (New York, 2014); The Artist’s Institute, (New York, 2014); « Art of Its Own Making » at The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts (St. Louis, MI, 2014. « A Drusy Vein », curated by Maxime Guitton, was their first extended solo show in France (Treize, Paris, 2014) .