Arts at CERN

The Chilean and Geneva-based artist reflect on the transformative experience of their residency, their exchanges with the community, and the abstraction and speculation of scientific thinking

‘The residency felt like a journey to the furthest possible edges—both physically and conceptually. These days provoked a deconstruction and a reformulation of my understanding of reality; it was a portal,’ Patricia Domínguez said, reflecting on their time at CERN. Chloé Delarue shared a similar sentiment: ‘After the discussions and experiments, you realise that what we call reality has a different flavour. My unconscious grasped this faster than I did, as revealed in the abyssal dreams I experienced during the residency’. The artists completed their residency at the Laboratory as part of Simetría—a dual residency programme between CERN and the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile, which includes the observatories of Antofagasta, La Silla and ALMA.

Examining CERN’s broad research, from fundamental science to cutting-edge technologies

Domínguez and Delarue enjoyed a singular dynamic of an art residency, delving together into CERN’s environment while exchanging their visions and enriching each other’s practices. ‘With Chloé, we immersed ourselves in the invisible and infinite world of fundamental particles. The experience expanded my understanding of precision and subtlety required to study the building blocks of what make up everything around us,’ said Domínguez. Together they explored CERN’s diverse experimental programme, visiting facilities like Large Hadron Collider detector’s ATLAS and ALICE, the neutron time-of-flight (n_TOF) experiments and the ISOLDE facility for isotope research.

CERN’s mission also involves technological innovation for high-energy physics and beyond. Guided by physicist Abhishek Sharma, the artists visited the Silicon Facility, where cutting-edge detectors are developed to unlock new physics phenomena. ‘When you can’t grasp everything, imagination becomes a reassuring force amid the tender anxiety stirred by the universe’s complexity,’ Delarue mentioned, describing her feelings towards the Laboratory’s scientific mission. ‘It’s like increasing your senses, a feeling of vertigo difficult to define,’ she added.

Exploring the creativity of fundamental physics

The residency also fostered rich dialogue with physicists, exploring the speculative notions surrounding the world of theoretical physics. In conversation with Wolfgang Lerche, the artists explored the nature of black holes and their possibilities of storing information. Their immersion in the scientific community challenged their preconceptions of scientific work. ‘I was deeply impressed by the level of abstraction, imagination, speculation and open thinking of scientists while they work with the largest, most precise and advanced machines that exist today,’ Dominguez commented about these encounters.

A shared residency and cultural exchange

Simetría was created to foster experimentation and promote exchanges between artists and scientists in Switzerland and Chile. Both countries are home to some of the most advanced instruments dedicated to understanding the origins and the evolution of the Universe—from the subatomic scale of particle physics to the cosmic scale of astronomy. In 2021, Simetría was established as Connect, the collaboration framework between Arts at CERN and Pro Helvetia launched in 2021. The Connect residencies invites two artists to CERN and a partner scientific organisation to research new expressions in their artistic practices and develop them further into art productions.

In 2022, subject to travel conditions, the residency will continue in Chile. The artists will travel to the Atacama Desert, home to the ESO’s world-class observatories, including La Silla, Paranal, and ALMA. Here, they will explore these astronomical facilities, which have contributed to breakthroughs like the discovery of a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy and the accelerating expansion of the universe. The artists will also engage with local scientific and cultural communities, continuing to evolve their practices in dialogue with the cosmos.