CERN Welcomes Julius von Bismarck as First Artist in Residence

Creative collisions have begun at CERN with the arrival of Julius von Bismarck as the laboratory's first Collide@CERN artist in residence. A rising star of the international arts scene, von Bismarck will team up with theoretical physicist James Wells as he works alongside the lab's engineers and scientists for the next two months before moving to the Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz, Austria for the second part of his residency. Von Bismarck and Wells will give a public presentation in CERN's Globe of Science and Innovation on 21 March. Doors open at 18:45.

"Particle physics and the arts are natural partners, both explore our place in the universe and both examine what it is to be human," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. "We are delighted to welcome Julius von Bismarck as our first artist in residence and we look forward to his creative interrogations and interactions with our science."

Julius von Bismarck is the winner of the first Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN residency award, which attracted close to 400 entries from 40 countries around the world. He was given the award by an international jury for "his proposal and work, which manipulates and criticises our notions of reality in unpredictable ways, often with inventive use of video, objects and public interventions". His works are also characterised by his fascination with complex philosophical and scientific ideas.

"Putting an artist in a place where thousands of scientists are looking for things that nature has never exhibited before is very exciting and, of course, I wanted to be that artist," said von Bismarck. "I am fascinated by making things perceivable which were never perceived before, and CERN is potentially a goldmine for unperceivable or even unimaginable things."

The public event on 21 March will be opened by CERN Director General Rolf Heuer joined on videoconference by Gerfried Stocker, Artistic Director of Ars Electronica. Julius von Bismarck and James Wells will make individual presentations of their work and then discuss their forthcoming creative collisions at CERN. CERN's cultural specialist, Ariane Koek will chair the discussion and take questions from the audience.

"It is interesting that after the Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN jury made the award to Julius von Bismarck, we discovered that he comes from a family of particle physicists and had to choose between going into the arts or science," said Koek. "This clearly shows how creativity, intuition and ingenuity goes across the arts and science, which are both expressions of what it is to be human in this world." During the residency, the public will be able to follow and comment on the experience and interchanges on a blog featuring Julius von Bismarck, James Wells and Horst Hoertner, von Bismarck's production mentor at Ars Electronica where he is Director of the transdisciplinary Futurelab, location for the last month of the residency. Following his residency, von Bismarck will showcase work and ideas developed during his time at CERN at both this year's Ars Electronica Festival in September and at CERN.

Von Bismarck lives and works in Berlin, and recently studied with the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson at his Institute for Spatial Experiments. Prior to that was on the MFA programme of Hunter College, New York. In 2008, he won the Golden Nica of the Prix Ars Electronica 2008 for his work 'Image Fulgarator.'

"Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN" targets creative men and women who feel inspired by CERN and would welcome the opportunity to deal with the ideas and/or technologies of particle physics, and with CERN as a setting for scientific encounter. The only condition with which the selected artist must comply is that the work of art itself or the presentation of it must be in digital form. The initial term of "Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN" has bet set for three years. This partnership and creative collaboration between CERN and Ars Electronica commenced with the 2011 Ars Electronica Festival.

http://www.aec.at/