born in 1988
A graduate of the Art University in Poznań, where Lelonek is currently a junior lecturer in the 7th Intermedia Photography Studio. She is active in the field of photography which she combines with other media as an artistic experiment. She is interested in activities on the verge of bio-art.
In her works Lelonek tackles the issues of the relation between man and nature and the problem of the end of the anthropocentrism and post-Darwinism. She is inspired by anthropology and post-colonial studies. In the protest against the dominance of white man over other people and animals, the artist breeds colonies of microorganisms, which grow over images of philosophers from History of Philosophy by Władysław Tatarkiewicz and reproductions of selected examples of European paintings. Lelonek also studies the fates of abandoned objects of everyday use, which, when left to themselves, become transformed into garbage-plants, thus demystifying the customary opposition between the world of nature and culture.
Diana Lelonek, Charles Darwin Overgrown with Aspergillus Versicolor, 2017
The image of Charles Darwin has fallen prey to Aspergillus versicolor – a cosmopolitan fungus which occurs worldwide. Diana Lelonek’s project Zoe-Therapy embraces activities on the images of philosophers and scientists – the eulogists of anthropocentric theories. Lelonek’s procedures expose their portraits to the domination of microorganism colonies. The artist commented in one of her interviews: “I decided to hack the tradition of European humanism tapping into tools used in a classic laboratory.” In the work presented in the exhibition, the fungi take revenge – persistent in their slow and unyielding activity – on the founder of the theory of evolution. It also evokes the disgust caused by fungi and mould in almost all their forms.
