Geneva, 18 June 2014. CERN1 today announces the first winners of the Laboratory’s new Accelerate @ CERN programme – a one-month research award for artists2. The winners, from the fields of Visual Arts and Interactive Web Art, are drawn from the first two participating countries, Greece and Switzerland respectively.
The winner of the Greek award, held in collaboration with the Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens and funded by the Onassis Foundation3, is the Greek visual artist Nikos Papadopoulos4. Papadopoulos was chosen according to the jury5 for his artistic record and the originality of the project “which combines the study of nature and science in a way that highlights both the conceptual background of the link between them and the aesthetic aspect of the visual approach that the artist will attempt”.
The award for the Swiss interactive web artist, funded by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia6 as part of their programme “Mobile. In Touch with Digital Creation”, was given to two 27-year-olds who applied as a pair7 – interactive designer Nadezda Suvorova who is completing her MA in Media Design at HEAD, Geneva this month, and the multi-award-winning Zurich-based game-designer Mario von Rickenbach.
Suvorova and von Rickenbach were given the award because “their work is capable of visualizing complex science, making it more accessible in interesting ways as well as being also artistically original and exciting”8. Their proposal uses gaming techniques to put members of the public in the position of scientists conducting an experiment, using the complex data at CERN.
“CERN is a user facility that’s host to some 11,000 scientists who come here to do their scientific research,” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. “I’m happy to welcome also these artistic researchers to our community.”
CERN signed, on 6th June, an agreement with the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan to fund an Accelerate @ CERN programme next year for a digital programmer and choreographer to win a one-month research stay at the Laboratory.
Further information:
Arts@CERN website
Accelerate@CERN website
Collide@CERN Facebook site
Twitter ArtsAtCern
Contact:
Ariane Koek,
Cultural specialist, CERN
ariane.koek@cern.ch
+41 22 767 52 46
Michel Vust
Pro Helvetia
Mvust@prohelvetia.ch
+41 44 267 71 28
Alexandra Chrysanthakopoulou
Onassis Cultural Centre
a.chrysanthakopoulou@sgt.gr
+30 213 0 178021
1. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics. It has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Romania is a Candidate for Accession. Serbia is an Associate Member in the pre-stage to Membership. India, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have Observer Status.
2. Accelerate@CERN is the sister strand of CERN’s successful flagship artists residency programme, Collide@CERN. Both are part of Arts@CERN programme, which was initiated in 2011. Each year, two countries will fund two different artistic domains to participate in the Accelerate@CERN research awards. The awards will be made after an open call in the country funding the award, and the winners will receive a stipend of 5000 CHF for their one-month research visit to CERN, as well as subsistence and travel costs. The awards will be judged by a jury comprising the funders of the programme and representatives from CERN.
3. The Onassis Cultural Centre-Athens was inaugurated in December 2010 as a new cultural site accessible to all. Its mission is the promotion of modern cultural expression, the support of new Greek artists, the cultivation of international collaboration, education and lifelong learning, and the interaction of sciences, innovation and arts. The centre is funded by the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation, which was set up by the late Aristotle Onassis to commemorate his son. http://www.sgt.gr/en/programme/eventsformonth/20131001 ; http://www.sgt.gr/en
4. Nikos Papadopoulos was born in 1970 and lives and works in Athens. He studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1998-2003). In 2010 he obtained a postgraduate degree in Fine arts from the same institution. He has had five solo exhibitions and has participated in many group exhibitions. Since 2000 he has been a member of the Filopappou group. http://www.nikospapadopoulos.info/home.html
5. The Jury for Accelerate@CERN Greece was Christos Carras, Executive Director of Onassis Cultural Centre; Marilena Karra Artistic Director of Visual Arts, Onassis Cultural Centre; Dr Bilge Dermikoz, Member of the CERN Cultural Board; Ariane Koek, CERN Cultural Specialist and director of Arts@CERN.
6. Pro Helvetia is the arts council of Switzerland and is a foundation entirely funded by the Swiss Federal Government. It is responsible for promoting artistic creating in Switzerland, contributing to cultural exchange at home and promoting the dissemination of Swiss culture abroad. http://www.prohelvetia.ch/Home.20.0.html?&L=4 Pro Helvetia recently initiated the “Mobile. In Touch with Digital Creation” programme, which explores the impact of digitalization on artistic work.
7. Nadezda Suvorova, who is completing her MA in Media Design at HEAD, Geneva this month, originally trained in graphic design the Ural State Academy of Architecture and Art, Ekaterinbourg, Russia. http://www.nadezdas.com/ Mario von Rickenbach is an award-winning game-designer based in Zurich. Having studied game design at Zurich University, he works in the intersection between art, design and technology. http://www.mariov.ch/portfolio/
8. The jury for Accelerate@CERN Prohelvetia was Anne-Catherine Sutermeister, Vice president of Pro Helvetia, head of Institute for Research in Art and Design, Haute Ecole d'Art et de Design (HEAD), Geneva; Jêrome Delormas, Director of La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris; Frédéric Hemmer, Head of IT Department at CERN; Marc Bodmer, Master of Law UZH & journalist; Ariane Koek, CERN Cultural Specialist and director of Arts@CERN.