ALJOSCHA 'I remember myself as a child going through high wild grasses of the steppe, sitting in them – trying to draw their essence – the never stopping movement of life.'

Aljoscha, born in 1974 in Lozova, Ukraine, is a Ukrainian visual artist known for his conceptual installations, interventions and sculptures that explore ideas related to bioism, biofuturism, and bioethical abolitionism. In his artwork, he addresses themes such as biology, the theory of life, and the creation of new forms of life or living beings and systems. His work often combines elements of biology, philosophy, and science, aiming to create an aesthetic and bioethical utopia.

Aljoscha’s artistic process involves drawing and painting, which are independent from his three-dimensional works. He creates intricate acrylic objects and installations made of pigmented acrylic glass that have both sculptural and painterly qualities. These works are characterized by their transparency, fragility, and ephemeral nature, giving them a sense of mobility and dynamism. His sculptures often resemble biological or organic objects, evoking the filigree structure of unknown complexity in nature.

The artist’s goal is to create new worlds with his unique formal language and raise questions about individuals, their freedom, and broader social processes from a bioethical perspective. He envisions a future where art and biology intersect, leading to interactions with living furniture, living houses, and living environments. Aljoscha believes in the possibility of artists creating advanced, non-suffering life forms and sees art museums of the future evolving into zoological gardens and galleries transforming into new life diversity funds.

Bioism, a term coined by Aljoscha, is central to his artistic philosophy. It represents his attempt to create novel life forms and develop a new aesthetic for the future of organic life. Bioism emphasizes the importance of vitality, multiplicity, complexity, and deviations in art. It calls for the composition of new life worlds from scratch, rather than merely describing existing natural phenomena. Aljoscha sees each of his works as an unknown living being and extends life to lifeless subjects.

Furthermore, Bioism aligns with bioethical abolitionism, aiming to minimize suffering, maximize well-being, and promote empathy and understanding in our disrupted relationship with the biological world. It envisions a future where ethical boundaries are permanently redefined, universal empathy is enforced, and the pursuit of paradise engineering leads to deviative progress.

Aljoscha’s work has been exhibited internationally, and he has received several awards and grants for his contributions to the art world. He is known for his complex and delicate artworks that challenge traditional artistic norms and explore the potential of synthetic biology and bioethics in art.

In addition to his artistic endeavors, Aljoscha has been involved in charitable installations and protests against violence, particularly in response to the conflict in Ukraine. His art and actions reflect his commitment to condemning violence and advocating for peace and kindness

Goethe Museum-Dusseldorf, 2019

What are the biggest challenges you have met in your career?

Perhaps the biggest challenge was to transit safely from interpreting art into ongoing reflective composition without drifting away into pure abstraction. This is still a kind of daily balance act.
Another difficulty is to keep highest possible distance to society and its dogmas, while exploring new fields in bioethics. Absolutely necessary for this to understand own-self as well as civilization as an evolving processes, not constants or fixed ideas.

Being not passivist, but active pacifist, during ongoing conflicts permanently confronted with the ethical dimensions of decision-making and the ethical ramifications of professional conduct, I still navigating the moral maze of ethical relativism and normative pluralism — endeavoring to reconcile the imperatives of ethical fidelity with the exigencies of pragmatic realism towards all beings.

How was your passion for art born?

It was an alchemy, the gestalt emergence, wherein the ineffable essence of beingness sought manifestation through the medium of imagination endeavor. I remember myself as a child going through high wild grasses of the steppe, sitting in them – trying to draw their essence – the never stopping movement of life. I tried to catch the beauty of their transcendent dance or better to say synaptic symphony of my own neuroaesthetics. It is still definitely a quest for existential meaning and metaphysical resonance amidst the contingent flux of existence.

What is your main source of inspiration?

It is probably me – as an ongoing biological system. Whether I like or not my own biology as well as billions micro- and macro-beings dominating my perceptions, feelings, ideologies, philosophy and ethics. In my case, without deeper understanding of it no inspiration possible at all. Biology for me is a wonder and contemplation, existence and ongoing evolution, diversity and harmony, microscopic universes of cells bearing the grandeur of ecosystems. The cycles of birth, growth, decay, and death mirrored in biological processes serving as a powerful aesthetic for the passage of time, transformation, and impermanence.

What does art mean to you?

Art for me is a bioism.
Bioism is an idea of the necessity to compose, to create new life worlds from the scratch, not to describe something already existing in the nature.
Bioism extends life to lifeless subjects.
Bioism aspires to disseminate new, limitless life forms throughout the universe. Bioism is an invitation to participate in the advanced evolution.

Aljoscha