Arts at CERN

The Zurich-based artist will spend a residency at CERN to extend her artistic research into the interactions between human and non-human entities in a techno-scientific world

Arts at CERN and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia have announced Johanna Bruckner as the artist selected for the second edition of Connect, a three-month residency at CERN aimed at Swiss artists with a distinct interest in fundamental science and interdisciplinary approaches.

Johanna Bruckner is a multimedia artist whose work focuses on the performance of the human body and the technologies that affect it. Her installations involve a combination of technological machinery and organic bodies, including videos created with computer graphics software accompanied by sound compositions. Inspired by quantum physics, molecular biology, and the study of hybrid life forms, Bruckner’s work seeks to promote an ecology of care and trust, to create a world where human and non-human beings coexist beyond binary regimes, in harmony with the environment and the technologies that influence it.

Her residency at CERN will be dedicated to artistic research and exploration in dialogue with scientists, engineers and laboratory staff based on her proposal Ekphrastic Motion: Like One Hundred Electric Leeches. ‘Working side-by-side with CERN scientists will allow me to develop my research into the impact of technology on the human body and the microorganisms that inhabit it, as well as to explore the possibilities for agencies in a technologised world’, says the artist. Her research period at the Laboratory, which will take place between the end of 2023 and 2024, will be followed by a development phase to define and produce a new artwork with the support of a scientific partner and the curator and team of Arts at CERN.

Launched in 2021, Connect is a collaboration between Arts at CERN and Pro Helvetia that promotes and supports dialogue between artists and scientists within the Laboratory’s context. This announcement follows the first two editions of the international residency format – Connect South Africa and Connect India – which were awarded to Kamil Hassim and Ian Purnell, and Rohini Devasher and Elisa Storelli, respectively. The Swiss artist duo AATB was selected for the inaugural edition of Connect. New residency opportunities will be announced in the upcoming months to foster experimentation in art and science in Switzerland and worldwide

About the jury

The jury of Connect was made up of Mónica Bello, Curator and Head of Arts at CERN; Giulia Bini, Curator and Program Manager at EPFL Pavilions;  Andrés Delannoy, physicist at the CMS Experiment at CERN, and Boris Magrini, Curator at HeK Basel.