Gilles Jobin

The winner of the first Collide Geneva Award was Gilles Jobin. He was awarded for his proposal to explore, through interventions and dance, the relationship between mind and body through interventions and dance at the world’s largest particle physics laboratory. The jury recognized Jobin for his intense interest in CERN and his increasing and evolving fascination with science, as shown by his most recent work, Spider Galaxies, which used data from the LHC to generate music and movement.

Internationally renowned since his first major choreographic work, A+B=X, in 1997, the Swiss choreographer and dancer Gilles Jobin have been a pioneer in the field of contemporary dance for nearly two decades. Though he lives and works primarily in Geneva, he regularly collaborates across international borders.

After dancing professionally for ten years, he founded his company, Cie Gilles Jobin, which is considered one of the leading independent dance companies in Switzerland. His radical artistic directions have made him the precursor of a new generation of European choreographers.

Gilles Jobin also has an interesting personal link to the world of physics: his uncle learned to ride a bike from none other than Albert Einstein, whose name is synonymous with the search for beauty and elegance in the universe through the study of physics, space, and time.

During the residency, he developed His project, Quantum, in collaboration with Collide International Award artist-in-residence Julius von Bismarck. A fusion of dance and lighting installation, Quantum was set to debut in the CMS cavern for CERN Open Days in September 2013. This event hosted 70,000 visitors at CERN during one weekend. The premiere of Quantum was followed by an international tour which included sixteen countries on three continents.