In the Spaces Between

Through essays, stories, and visual contributions, the first publication dedicated to Arts at CERN reflects on the last decade of encounters between art and science at the Laboratory

In the Spaces Between is the first publication dedicated to Arts at CERN, the arts programme of the world’s largest laboratory for particle physics. Through essays, stories, and visual contributions, it reflects on the encounters between art and science that have emerged over the past decade from the creative and dynamic environment of the Laboratory.

What draws artists to this highly specialised scientific environment? What compels them to engage with the unknown behind experiments and theoretical frameworks? Shaped by the reflective enquiry of creative practice, artists, scientists, and guest contributors explore the spaces between understanding and unknowing, between observation and imagination.

Edited by Mónica Bello, the collection invites an open-ended journey navigable through a conceptual index of key themes: → Cosmos, → Dark Matter, → Futurology, → Experiments, → Imagination, → Quantum, and others. These diverse voices converge to question the nature of reality and to engage with the philosophical, aesthetic, and material dimensions of physics. They reflect on research and experimentation, evoking new possibilities of image-making, language, and transmission. Scales, magnitudes, models, and event boundaries become fertile ground for narrating the impossibility of legibility. The contributors move through underground tunnels, linger in caverns, and return to the surface to investigate, reimagine, and ultimately challenge our understanding of reality.

Situated within the unique material conditions of the Laboratory, In the Spaces Between presents the creations that emerge where art and science meet in ongoing dialogue. In the spirit of Arts at CERN, the book is an invitation to explore the shared understandings and creative possibilities that unfold when artists and scientists work alongside one another, offering an unparalleled landscape for collaboration and insight.

Contributions by: Agustín Fernández Mallo, Ale de la Puente, Alessandra Gnecchi, Antoni Muntadas, Armin Linke, B.K., Chloé Delarue, Cecilia Vicuña, Chiara Mariotti and Paolo Tartaglione, Claire Adam-Bourdarios, Denis Oliveira Damazio, Diego Blas, Dorota Grabowska, Elisa Storelli, Eglė Kulbokaitė and Dorota Gawęda, Fabiola Gianotti, Francesco Polci, François J. Bonnet, Gianni Motti, Hemauer/Keller, Holly Corfield Carr, Jeremi Niedziela, José-Carlos Mariátegui, Joan Heemskerk, John Ellis, June Balthazard and Pierre Pauze, Julijonas Urbonas, Julius von Bismarck and Benjamin Maus, Laura Couto Rosado, Lea Porsager, Maria Elena Angoletta, Mariele Neudecker, Michael Doser, Mónica Bello, Nicole L’Huillier, Patricia Domínguez, Raqs Media Collective, Rasheedah Phillips, Rik van Breukelen, Rosa Barba, Rosa Menkman, Ryoji Ikeda, Semiconductor, SU Wen-Chi, Suzanne Treister, Tamara Vázquez Schröder, Tania Candiani, Taylor Carmahan, Yunchul Kim, Yu-Chen Wang.

Editor: Mónica Bello
Editorial design: Nina Jäger
Assistant editor: Ana Prendes
Editorial advisors: Ethel Baraona Pohl, César Reyes Nájera

ISBN: 978-84-124942-6-6

First edition 2025 published by dpr-barcelona
This book is licensed under a Creative Commons