Arts at CERN

The two artists will present their ideas and progress during their residency at CERN and the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences for the CERN community

Connect India is a dual artistic residency between CERN and the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS) in Bengaluru, India. The Connect collaboration framework was launched in 2021 by Arts at CERN and Pro Helvetia to serve as a platform for interactions and dialogue between artistic and scientific communities across the world.

The first edition of Connect took place at CERN and in South Africa, where two artists explored the science of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) and the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO). This second edition offered one joint residency for two artists, Elisa Storelli, from Switzerland, and Rohini Devasher, from India.

Swiss artist Elisa Storelli is interested in the artistic examination of time, which she refers to as “chronomorphology”. Her research delves into the ways time has been measured, calculated and experienced across cultures and centuries. Through installations, lectures and sound performances, she presents playful and poetic perspectives around the notions of time. In her residency project, A para-chronology of atoms and stars, Storelli intends to create a scientific narrative in the form of a multimedia poem that invites the audience to consider the notions of time and chronology in shaping our understanding of the world.

Rohini Devasher is an artist and amateur astronomer. Her films, prints, sounds and drawings map the complexities of time and space. In a Mirror, Darkly, Devasher’s residency proposal, evolves as a close reading of the methods and interactions of observation in fundamental physics through the lenses of wonder and “the strange”. Its title references both the mirroring of matter and antimatter at CERN as well as the optics used to measure gravitational waves – a new horizon in observational astronomy and a key area of research at ICTS.

The two artists will present their ideas and progress during their residency final presentation at CERN on Thursday, 13 July, from 11.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m., in Salle Curie (40/S2-C01). The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. Everyone at CERN is welcome to attend.