Texte remanié de: Diss.--Saarbrücken--Universität, 1995. / Bibliogr. p. 260-276.

In 1622, the Dowager Queen of France, Marie de' Medici, had recently returned to Paris after a period of exile imposed by her son, Louis XIII, and commissioned a monumental cycle of images from Peter Paul Rubens to decorate the gallery of her freshly constructed Luxembourg Palace. The contract for the commission tasked Rubens with painting the “illustrious life and heroic deeds” of Marie de' Medici. This thesis argues that alongside the classical and the historical, Rubens employed a specifically Catholic visual language to create a painted panegyric of a heroic female sovereign. In doing so, Rubens linked Marie de' Medici with the Virgin Mary through compositional resonances and a personal iconography developed for the queen throughout her life in popular images and literary tributes. In the Medici Cycle, the maternal, virginal, and heroic virtues embodied by the Virgin served as justification for Marie de' Medici’s sovereignty and her reconciliation with Louis.

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A experiência de viver em São Paulo certamente foi o principal motor que mobilizou esta tese. Dentre as cidades brasileiras, a capital paulista é a que expressa de forma mais intensa e emblemática as contradições de um país que buscou lançar-se ao futuro, mas que teve seu \"espírito moderno\" constantemente posto à prova diante das dificuldades de construção de uma esfera pública na periferia do capital. Desde sua fundação, a cidade foi movida pelo binômio demolição-construção, passou pela edificação do principal parque industrial nacional, transformou-se paulatinamente em cidade de serviços, e nos anos 1990 somou-se às cidades globais. Desde então, a vida urbana paulistana vem enfrentando duas situações: a que é fruto da herança moderna, vivenciada em sua incompletude e fragmentação, e a da cidade contemporânea e suas novas dinâmicas virtualizadas. Nesse panorama, a década de 1990 marcou uma mudança estrutural tanto nos modos de vida da cidade como nas práticas artísticas, que buscam responder à nova condição urbana, cujo movimento corresponde ao crescente interesse de parte dos artistas pela cidade. Diante disso, a tese buscou examinar como, a partir dos anos 1990, a experiência paulistana se diferencia de contextos históricos anteriores, donde já se verificava uma aproximação entre os dois mundos. Para tanto, elegeu-se como objeto de estudo um conjunto de obras de Rubens Mano, tomado como modelar dos pressupostos teóricos sobre as transformações urbanas verificadas no período. O estudo dessas obras salientou dois aspectos fundamentais em sua trajetória: a revisão crítica do projeto moderno - e a produção de espaço dali decorrente -, e uma nova perspectiva crítica e contextualista da arte contemporânea sobre a vida urbana, que tensiona a obra na direção de um híbrido capaz de transitar entre os mundos artístico e extra-artístico. Ao lado de outros artistas, Mano vêm demostrando que o fazer artístico está cada vez mais imbricado à experiência do cotidiano, atento estética e politicamente à problemática urbana e suas contradições. / The experience of living in São Paulo certainly was the main engine that mobilized this thesis. Among the Brazilian cities, the capital of São Paulo is the one that expresses in a more intense and emblematic way the contradictions of a country that sought to launch itself into the future, but whose \"modern spirit\" was constantly put to the test in front of the difficulties of building a public sphere on the periphery of capital. Since its foundation the city has been moving by the binomial demolition-construction, passed by the construction of the main national industrial park, gradually replaced in a tertiary city that in the 1990\'s were added to the global cities. Since then, the São Paulo urban life has been facing two situations: that of modern inheritance, experienced in its incompleteness and fragmentation, and that of the contemporary city and its new virtualized dynamics. In this panorama, the 1990\'s marked a structural change both in the ways of life in the cities and in artistic practices, which have been responding to the new urban condition, which movement corresponds to the raise of art interests to the city. In view of this, this thesis sought to examine how the São Paulo experience from the 1990\'s differs from previous historical contexts, where there was already an approximation between art and city. For this, the thesis choses as object of study a set of works by Rubens Mano, taken as a modeling of the theoretical assumptions about the urban transformations verified among that period. The study of these works emphasized two fundamental aspects in his trajectory: the critical revision of the modern project - and the production of space in results - and a new critical and contextual contemporary art perspective on urban life, which intends the work of art towards a hybrid able to transit the artistic and extra-artistic worlds. Like many other artists, Mano has been demonstrating that the artistic work is increasingly imbricated by the experience of daily life, aesthetically and politically attentive to the urban problematic and its contradictions.

Este trabalho é resultado da pesquisa realizada nas áreas de educação, acervos pessoais e exposição. É a construção de um dicionário a partir da escritura de uma exposição das caixas-obras de Rubens Matuck. Corte, fragmentação e coleção são os conceitos que permeiam os conteúdos dos verbetes. / This work is the researchs result in the areas of education, personal archive and exhibition. This is the construction of a dictionary taken from the writing of a exhibition with the boxes-works of art from Rubens Matuck. Cut, fragmentation and collection are the concepts which fulfill the contents of the entry of the dictionary.

Este trabalho é resultado da pesquisa realizada nas áreas de educação, acervos pessoais e exposição. É a construção de um dicionário a partir da escritura de uma exposição das caixas-obras de Rubens Matuck. Corte, fragmentação e coleção são os conceitos que permeiam os conteúdos dos verbetes. / This work is the researchs result in the areas of education, personal archive and exhibition. This is the construction of a dictionary taken from the writing of a exhibition with the boxes-works of art from Rubens Matuck. Cut, fragmentation and collection are the concepts which fulfill the contents of the entry of the dictionary.

PCBs are among the most problematic marine contaminants. Converging towards the oceans via the rivers and the atmosphere, they concentrate in sediments where they become a permanent threat to organisms living at their contact. PCBs are extremely resistant, bioaccumulated and some congeners are considered as highly toxic. The North Sea is considered as a highly contaminated area ; however little information is available regarding the impact of PCBs on key benthic organisms of this region. Ubiquist, abundant and generally recognized as a good bioindicator species, the common NE Atlantic sea star Asterias rubens (L.) is an ecosystem-structuring species in the North Sea and was chosen as an experimental model. The present study focused on the characterization of PCB bioaccumulation in A. rubens exposed through different routes (seawater, food, sediments) and on subsequent biological responses, at immune and sucellular levels. The considered responses were respectively (i) the production of reactive oxyggen species (ROS) by sea stars amoebocytes, which constitutes the main line of defence of echinoderms against pathogenic challenges and (ii) the induction of a cytochrome P450 immunopositive protein (CYP1A IPP) which, in vertebrates, is involved in PCB detoxification. Experimental exposures carried out have shown that A. rubens efficiently accumulates PCBs. Exposure concentrations were always adjusted to match those encountered in the field. PCB concentrations reached in sea stars during the experiments matched the values reported in field studies ; therefore our experimental protocol was found to accurately simulate actual field situations. Uptake kinetics were related to the planar conformation of the considered congeners : non-coplanar PCB uptake was described using saturation models, whereas coplanar PCBs (c-PCBs) were bioaccumulated according to bell-shaped kinetics. Non-coplanar congeners generally reached saturation concentrations whithin a few days or a few weeks, which means that sea stars can be used to pinpoint PCB contamination shortly after occurrence. On the other hand, c-PCB concentrations reached a peak followed by a sudden drop, indicating the probable occurrence of c-PCB-targeted metabolization processes in sea stars. Our experimental studies also demonstrated that seawater was by far the most efficient route for PCB uptake in sea stars and that even if PCB levels in seawater are extremely low compared to sediment-associated concentrations, seawater constitutes a non-negligible route for PCB uptake in marine invertebrates. Among the different body compartments, bodywall displayed the highest bioaccumulative potency and can therefore be considered as particularly interesting for field biomonitoring applications. Rectal caeca, which play a central role in digestion and excretion processes in sea stars, have also rised particular interest as results suggest these organs could be involved in the elimination of PCB 77 degradation products. The field work carried out during the present study showed that PCB concentrations measured in A. rubens tissues reflect environmental levels of certain congeners. As it was the case in experimental conditions, A. rubens differentially accumulated PCB congeners according to their planarity. Strong relationships were found between concentrations measured in sediments and those determined in sea stars body wall for certain non-coplanar congeners (e.g. 118 and 138), thus allowing to consider A. rubens as a suitable bioindicator species for medium-chlorinated PCB congeners. On the other hand, sea stars appeared to be able to regulate -to a certain extent- their content in coplanar PCBs. This implies that (i) A. rubens cannot be strictly considered as an indicator organism for c-PCBs and (ii) c-PCBs probably affect essential aspects of sea star biology, potentially leading to deleterious effects. The present study addressed effects of PCB exposure on A. rubens biology, in both experimental and field conditions. In experimental conditions, PCBs were found to significantly alter ROS production by sea stars amoebocytes. This alteration also occurred in a congener-specific way : c-PCBs were found to significantly affect, and probably impair sea stars immune system, whereas non-coplanar congeners had no effect. In the field, the PCB contribution to immunotoxicity could not be determined because none of our studies considered ROS production along with c-PCB concentration measurements. However, the levels of ROS production by sea stars amoebocytes measured in field and experimental conditions were found to potentially lead to altered immunity, and therefore to impair sea stars defence against pathogenic agents. A specially designed ELISA was used to measure CYP1A IPP in experimental and field conditions. Experimental work has shown that the induction of this protein was related to PCB exposure in a congener-specific fashion : c-PCBs alone were found to strongly induce the production of CYP1A IPP according to a dose-dependent relationship. These results have highlighted many similarities between the dioxin-like responsiveness of CYP1A IPP induction in sea stars and that occurring in vertebrates. This strongly suggests similarities in the toxicity-triggering mechanism of dioxins and c-PCBs. In the field, CYP1A IPP induction was found to be significantly related to PCB levels determined in bottom sediments. It can thus be considered as a valuable biomarker. Further research is however needed to better characterize the influence of physico-chemical and physiological parameters on CYP1A induction to refine the interpretation of the information gathered via this biomarker. Results obtained in our study have lead to questionning international regulations applying to PCB biomonitoring in the marine environment. For instance, we strongly suggest that the selection of congeners to be systematically considered should be revised to include c-PCBs. Indeed, in our experiments PCB toxicity was almost always attributable to the sole c-congeners. Historically, determination of c-PCB concentrations was extremely difficult due to analytical limitations ; however, nowadays, these problems have been overcome and do no more justify their exclusion from monitoring studies. Although A. rubens appeared to be quite resistant to PCB contamination, levels measured in sea stars from the southern North Sea can possibly affect their immune and endocrine systems in a subtle way, but with relatively low risk for this species at the short-term. However, this does not mean that other species in this region undergo similarly low risks, or that sea star-structured ecosystems may not become affected in the long-term

Neuropeptides are neuronal signaling molecules that regulate many physiological and behavioural processes in vertebrates and invertebrates. Investigation of neuropeptide signaling in echinoderms (e.g. starfish) can provide insights into the evolution of neuropeptide systems because as deuterostomian invertebrates they occupy an "intermediate" phylogenetic position between vertebrates and protostomian invertebrates. Recent analysis of neural transcriptome data from the starfish Asterias rubens has identified 40 transcripts encoding neuropeptide precursors. Here the expression and function of neuropeptides derived from four of these precursors was investigated: relaxin-like gonad-stimulating peptide precursor (AruRGPP), relaxin-like peptide precursor 2 (AruRLPP2), pedal peptide-like neuropeptide precursors 1 and 2 (ArPPLNP1 and ArPPLNP2). AruRGP induces spawning of ovarian fragments from A. rubens. Analysis of the expression of AruRGPP in A. rubens using mRNA in situ hybridization revealed expression by cells in the radial nerve cords, circumoral nerve ring and tube feet. Furthermore, a band of AruRGPP-expressing cells was also identified in the body wall epithelium lining the cavity that surrounds the sensory terminal tentacle and optic cushion at the tips of the arms. Discovery of these cells is important because they are candidate physiological mediators for hormonal control of starfish spawning in response to environmental cues. Interestingly, AruRLPP2 is also expressed in the same region of the arm tip as AruRGPP but the physiological role(s) of AruRLP2 is not yet known. Analysis of the expression of ArPPLNP1 and ArPPLNP2 using mRNA in situ hybridization revealed a widespread pattern of expression in A. rubens. Furthermore, immunohistochemical localization of peptides derived from these precursors revealed immunostaining in neuronal processes innervating muscles. Consistent with this pattern of expression, peptides derived from ArPPLNP1 and ArPPLNP2 act as muscle relaxants in starfish. Interestingly, this contrasts with previous findings from protostomian invertebrates, where pedal peptide/orcokinin-type neuropeptides act as muscle contractants.

My work is about stress and strain in our modern times. I am using self portraiture as a way to discuss the world around me and hope that the viewer will relate to my experiences. Drawing, painting and video are used to convey different aspects of my observations, and old techniques are mixed with new technologies. Personal observations, artistic and scientific influences, and the art-making process have shaped this body of work.

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