For the most representative Greek schools, life appeared as the model of the natural order due to the regularity of biological processes and the spontaneity and intrinsic purpose of vital acts. The naturalism of the Renaissance in the sixteenth century, highlighted this tendency, particularly exaltingperfection, beauty and proportion of the human body, which is assumed to be the ultimate expression of the universe, from which is the archetype and symbol. This is very evident in the inaugural work of modern medicine, De humani corporis fabrica (1543), Andreas Vesalius, where nature is conceived as a production of the supreme artist (summus Opifex), and the human body his most admirable work, often called as artefact (artificium), that is, the product of an art. For example, the "admirable structure of the ear" is compared with musical instruments, to show that the natural productions are much more finely crafted than those that are produced by human art.

In the transition from the seventeenth century to the eighteenth, the nature reinforces its explanatory function,but his power of acting becomes the subject of controversy. In its hegemonic version, mechanism, nature isinvested with a supplement of order and regularity: it is a perfect mechanism, but without spontaneity andintrinsic dynamism. However, the mechanistic explanation is insufficient, and in particular to explain the phenomena of life. A living organism can be entirely reduced to a simple mechanism? It is a specialmechanism? It is a unique structure, distinct from any mechanism? It was mainly in the area of medicine that the debate between mechanism and vitalism assumed greater proportions. Indeed, considered from themedical point of view, nature is revealed more complex, variable and contingent than a strictly mechanicalplan.

The discovery of the cell, in 1838, and further progress in the biological sciences, in particular with the development of experimental medicine by Claude Bernard and the discovery of the mechanism of naturalselection by Darwin, found answers to many highly intriguing questions, but, in doing it they create newperplexities. The discovery of the structure in helix of DNA molecules in 1953 and the emergence of molecular medicine, genetic engineering, human cloning and sequencing of the human genome, which started in 1990 and completed in 2007, expand the capacity to transform the body and, ultimately, to modify the "most elementary and biophysical components of our identity", as stated Viriato Soromenho Marques in the exhibition catalogue, launched new challenges that put in question the concept of human.

The dream and utopia have long been present in human thought since many time. The exhibition evokes clearly this dimension throughout the sculpture in marble Icarus (1987) by José Esteves. But the dream and utopia beeing the propulsor of the technology which permits the human being to transcend his physical reality, his nature, also can provoke the tragedy, as we can see in the Icarus' myth.

But what is going to happen in the future, what idea for the human in the bioengineer era? To respect traditional boundaries between natural and artificial? or dilute of culture into the nature, as suggested by theart installation Portrait Protein (2007) by Marta de Menezes? or denature the human, as purposed by theconcept of post-humanity? To the surprise of the geometric spirits, the more you discover the secrets of nature, the more it reveals complex, fine, subtle and even paradoxical, available for a variety of connections,even seemingly unnatural. "I will follow the mere nature with reason", an expression of Francisco Sanches, portuguese doctor and philosopher of the sixteenth century, is a formula that condenses all of modern rationality program, based on the relevance given to nature as a guide thought and action. However, the body moving against the current of a river, represented in the art photographs of the series Walking (2001) by Manuel Valente Alves, seems to antagonize the nature, following an anti-natural sense. Genetic engineeringand synthetic biology in recent decades allow you to create new identity forms for humans that reinforce the accuracy of the ethical issues at stake.

The exhibition "Living Automaton" is part of the research project "The concept of nature in the medico-philosophical thinking in the transition from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century" of the History of Culture Institute of the New University of Lisbon. Its principal aim is to create a space of contemporary reflection on the concepts of nature, body, life, artifice, using objects from different departments of the National Museum of Natural Histort and Science of the University of Lisbon - zoology, mineralogy, scientific instruments - which are crossed with art objects from private collections in different supports - bioarte, photography and sculpture - and concepts of the seventeenth/eigtheenth century - automaton, nature, art, simple/composite, nature and singularities - that are questioned.

The book-catalogue not only documents the exhibition, but also gives voice to several contemporary thinkers and philosophers who, through unpublished texts written for this book, reflect on some of the issues raised by the exhibition.

Manuel Valente Alves and Adelino Cardoso
Exhibition curators