Confluences. Art, science, and immortality

Description

Confluences: Art, Science, and Immortality is a publication edited by the University of Navarra Museum that was created as an interdisciplinary response to the artistic project Aurelia Immortal, created by Javier Viver. In this volume, university professors and specialists from different fields reflect on one of the great questions of our time: the search for immortality.

The book brings together texts by Javier Viver, Javier Ortiz-Echagüe, Rosa Fernández Urtasun, Raquel Cascales, José Ignacio Murillo, and Luis Echarte, proposing a dialogue between art, science, ethics, medicine, aesthetics, and literature. These reflections arise from direct encounters with the artist's work and expand its meaning from multiple academic perspectives.

The starting point is Aurelia Immortal, a project developed as a photobook and exhibition at the University of Navarra Museum in 2017. In it, Javier Viver investigates Aurelia aurita, a jellyfish capable of regenerating itself after completing its life cycle. Based on the documentation of this biological process, the artist constructs a visual fictional narrative that dialogues with transhumanist theories, which advocate the indefinite prolongation of human life through technology.

Far from offering definitive answers, Confluences raises new questions. What consequences would immortality have for the human condition? Would art, creativity, or the meaning of life continue to exist? This book thus becomes a space for critical thinking that connects artistic creation and contemporary reflection.