Art and Science

Donostia International Physics Center collaborates closely with the Art, Science, Technology and Society program promoted by Tabakalera since its inception. A new way of working, at the intersection between art, science and technology, to jointly address issues related to the challenges of our time.

VISIONES CUANTICAS

On the occasion of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology to be celebrated in 2025, Tabakalera opens the exhibition Visiones Cuánticas (Quantum Visions), an exhibition of contemporary art curated by the director of Arts at CERN Monica Bello that brings together the work of eleven artists. The exhibition will be open to the public from February 21 to June 8.

Co-produced with HEK (Haus der Elektronischen Künste) in Basel and MU Hybrid Art House in Eindhoven, cities to which the exhibition will later travel, Quantum Visions also counts DIPC, the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) and Tekniker among its collaborating scientific institutions.

DIPC participates in the exhibition as a collaborating institution in one of the newly created works conceived by filmmaker Jaione Camborda, as well as in the conceptualization and contents of the mediation space. This space, located at the entrance to the exhibition, will serve to introduce the general public to the fundamental concepts of quantum physics, the quantum technologies that we already use in our daily lives, as well as new emerging technologies, such as quantum computers, which are currently being worked on.

Quantum Visions will also develop a full program of parallel activities aimed at the public, ranging from workshops for families to informative talks and dialogues on quantum physics.

In addition, all these activities are part of a broader program promoted by the Basque Government as part of the BasQ strategy to celebrate the international year of quantum, thanks to which the activities will travel to different locations in the Basque Country.

MORE ART AND SCIENCE CONNEXIONS

The collaboration between Tabakalera and DIPC in art and science projects arises in 2020. 

In this symbiosis DIPC brings its experience and know-how in the field of Science to find possibilities for artistic co-productions. Tabakalera contributes with the know-how in the field of Art and Culture for the selection, curatorship and work with artists. In addition, Tabakalera provides the resources of Medialab to organize workshops, conferences and other activities of dissemination. Thus, a large part of the artistic process will be developed in Tabakalera's Medialab so that they can be visible to the general public, and can even be open to the participation of involved groups.

These are the projects developed to date:

"Máquinas de Ingenio. Jakintzen bidegurutzean"
Tabakalera Exhibition Hall: 24 NOV 2023 - 04 FEB 2024

The exhibition shows a series of prototypes resulting from intense work processes that Tabakalera has promoted during 2023 around the axis Art, Science, Technology and Society. The projects have been led by several artists and developed in close collaboration with scientific and technological partners. The artistic prototype entitled "Computational Compost" developed in collaboration between DIPC researchers Txomin Romero, Silvia Bonoli, Raúl Angulo and Jens Stücker, Fernando Álvarez González (EHU) and architect and researcher Marina Otero Verzier examines the environmental impact of data storage, highlighting the apparent volatility of digital information that, in reality, requires massive physical infrastructures consuming energy, water and raw materials.

"Clouds of Pollen. Data, Living material"
Hall 2nd floor Tabakalera: 06 OCT 2022 - 10 NOV 2022

The Grow Your Own Cloud collective formed by Monika Seyfried (PL) and Cyrus Clarke (UK/FR) has been investigating the possibilities of DNA data storage in plants since 2017. For their latest work, they conducted an exchange with renowned physicist Steen Rasmussen to understand the potential for living systems to interact with artificial life. The dialogue is the fruit of the collaboration between DIPC and Tabakalera.

"Suprasprectives"
Tabakalera Exhibition Hall, "Máquinas de Ingenio": 24 NOV 2023 - 04 FEB 2024
Patio Tabakalera : 11 SEPT 2020 - 12 OCT 2020

This audiovisual installation by Berlin-based artist duo Quadrature (Juliane Götz and Sebastian Neitsch) is the first to be produced by Medialab Tabakalera, in collaboration with Ars Electronica and DIPC.In the process of creating Supraspectives, the artists have collected data from 590 (former) spy satellites, whose trajectories the installation follows. One third of the satellites can be considered space junk, as they are obsolete or damaged, but nevertheless, they continue to fly over us.