Text by CLOT Magazine
Symmetry is a new residency programme launched to foster interdisciplinary exchange between artists and scientists working or living in Chile and Switzerland. It combines the residency of two artists in three of the most fascinating scientific research centres in the world: the Large Hadron Collider, CERN (Switzerland) and the astronomic observatories in Chile: ALMA and the VLT.
Symmetry will invite one artist from Chile and one artist from Switzerland to a shared residency in each country. The experience seeks to connect artists with the community of physicists and engineers to delve further into the challenges of contemporary science through advanced technologies that explore and observe nature.
The names of the artists who will participate in the first version of the Symmetry residency program were announced at the Fourth Meeting of Art, Science and Digital Culture held in the Museum of Visual Arts (MAVI) in Santiago, Chile. This time Nicole L’Huillier (it’s worth reading the interview we had with her a few months ago) from Chile and Alan Bogana from Switzerland.
The artists will visit the remote Chajnantor Plateau in the northern Chilean Andes, where 66 antennas from the ALMA radio telescope are located, and also the Very Large Telescope, an Observatory located in Cerro Paranal near Antofagasta. In Switzerland, the artists will be guest residents at CERN in Geneva
The shared residency of two artists in two of the most extraordinary research centres in the fields of astronomy and particle physics will enable us to expand and explore the connections between new creative forms, indicates Enrique Rivera, Director of the Chilean Corporation of Video and Electronic Arts.
Man has been fascinated by the beauty of stars and the meaning of the universe. It’s always exciting to see what two very different approaches to looking can make out of such a celestial act.
