Arts at CERN

Through a wide variety of media, Domínguez draws upon myths, symbols, rituals and healing practices, combining artistic imagination with experimental research on ethnobotany.

Patricia Domínguez (b. 1984) is an artist and educator that lives and works in Puchuncaví, Chile. Domínguez works with watercolours, ceramics, sculptural assemblages and video installations to create shrine-like imagery derived from a visual vocabulary that spans from plant life, mass market goods, corporate wellness schemes and the digital world. Dominguez is also the founder of Studio Vegetalista, an experimental platform for ethnobotanical research based in Chile.

Domínguez received the Simetría Award in 2019 together with Geneva-based artist Chloé Delarue, a residency programme established by Arts at CERN and Corporación Chilena de Video (CChV). Domínguez completed a joint residency between CERN and the astronomical observatories at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimetre Array and La Silla Observatory) in the Chilean Atacama Desert.

Her multi-layered artistic approach is informed by the wide scope of her education and research; her MFA from Hunter College, New York is supplemented by a Botanical Illustration Certificate from the New York Botanical Garden, her residency at CERN to learn about quantum physics, non-locality and entanglement, and time spent in Peru learning from a plant healer and researching beliefs around interconnectivity and multi-species spirit in the plant world.