SOLU Dialogues: Andrew Gryf Paterson and Adam Zaretsky on conservation
20 November 2025 at 18:00-20:00
Panimokatu 1 (3rd floor), 00580 Helsinki

This iteration of SOLU Dialogues brings together Bioart Society members Andrew Gryf Paterson and Adam Zaretsky to discuss bioart archival and conservation practices. The event connects with Andrew Gryf Paterson’s SOLU micro residency, where they will be working on the Pixeache Archival Tendencies project. International bioart provocateur Adam Zaretsky joins as a guest of Pixelache to examine an artwork of Zaretsky’s donated to the Finnish National Galleries Collection from Pixelache Helsinki Festival in 2010. The mold that has been growing on and as a part of the artwork — we can name the mold: Curator’s Extremophile — is a rarefied species after 12 years in the dark and may have novel extremophile properties that only a trained molecular mycologist consultant could uncover. They will discuss this project and the problems and possibilities of preserving living artworks.

Further reading: 

Adam Zaretsky, “Biomedia Art Archiving in the Ephemeral Permanent Collection”, ARC-HIVE: CASE STUDIES, Unstill Life, Pg 30-31

Andrew Gryf Paterson, Kiasma preserves hybrid DNA-extract new media "mashup" for over 6 years!

SOLU Dialogues is an ongoing event series by Bioart Society where art, science and society meet. Through varying formats artists, scientists and other practitioners are invited to present and discuss their work. 

Adam Zaretsky is a former researcher at MIT's Department of Biology and an experimental bioartist with over a decade of teaching experience. His art practice critically explores the legal, ethical, social, and libidinal implications of biotechnological materials and methods, with a particular focus on transgenic humans. Known for his engaging, hands-on bioart labs, Zaretsky creates dynamic spaces for bioart production.He has led the VivoArts experimental bioart class at institutions including San Francisco State University (SFSU), SymbioticA at the University of Western Australia (UWA), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), The Arts and Genomic Centre (TAGC) at Leiden University, and Waag Society. He is the Head of Research at Nadlinc (since 2016) and a Research Consultant at BEAK (since 2022) in New York. Since 2024, he has been a Visiting Professor at the Department of Audio & Visual Arts at the Ionian University, where he also serves as the Creative Director of TTTlabs and TTTfellows in the "Rewilding Cultures" project (2022-2026), part of the Feral Lab Network, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

andrew gryf paterson is a self-styled 'artist-organiser' & ‘autoarchaeologist’, cultural producer, curator, educator, archivist and independent researcher. Specialised in developing and leading inter- and trans- disciplinary projects exploring connections between art, digital culture and science, cultural activism, ecological and sustainability movements, cultural heritage and collaborative networks. Originally from Scotland, Paterson has been active in Helsinki, Finland, as well as Latvia, the Eastern Baltic Sea region & internationally across the fields of media/ network/ environmental arts and activism. Actively involved with Helsinki-based cultural associations for over 20 years, in particular Pixelache Helsinki, most recently Paterson has been coordinating Pixelache’s Archival Strategy 2024-2026. This work has been informed by their cooperation with AvoinGLAM, where Paterson has been working within echo of the Finnish Media Art History (MEHI) project, and open knowledge ecosystems such as Wikidata, Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.