Geneva, 6 December 2011. The first Prix1 Ars Electronica2 Collide @ CERN3 was today awarded to the 28-year-old German artist, Julius Von Bismarck for the quality of his ideas and his ability to make playful creative collisions between the arts and science.
With a growing international reputation for his diverse and experimental artistic practice, Von Bismarck was given the award by the 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.
“We’re very much looking forward to welcoming Julius Von Bismarck as our first artist in residence to CERN next year”, said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. “This is an important step forward in our growing engagement with the arts.”
“The large international participation as well as the artistic quality and inspirational power of many of the submissions are encouraging indicators that this residency program is perfectly meeting the growing interest and excitement about sciences,” said Ars Electronica Director, Gerfried Stocker.
The award was made following the jury meeting to assess 395 entries from over 40 countries around the world, after the 7 week open call was announced at the Ars Electronica Festival September 2011. The high quality of ideas and range of disciplines shows the strength of interest and focus on the importance of science and technology in our world as a source of inspiration across the art forms.
The artistic fields ranged from experimental sound work and music, architecture and new design, sculpture, generative art and film to social media projects and new design that explore how people relate science and technology. In recognition of the high level of interest and participation in the competition, as well as the quality and range of ideas shown by the international artists, the jury decided to create an additional category of Honorary Mentions.
The Prix Ars Electronica Collide @ CERN Honorary Mentions are awarded to the new media artist Natasa Teofilovic (Serbia); the interdisciplinary music theatre collaboration between composer Arnoud Noordegraaf (Netherlands) and writer Adrian Hornsby (UK); and the generative artist Eno Henze (Germany).
Both CERN and the Ars Electronica Futurelab transdisciplinary team are looking forward to working with Julius Von Bismarck who is eager to explore new territories to create artistic expressions inspired by his engagement with CERN.
As Von Bismarck said: “The root reason as to why I am an artist is the same as it would be for being a scientist: finding out what there is out in the world and how I can contribute to our understanding of it. In fact, I didn’t know if I would study physics or art, but in the end decided to study art, reading about physics and research in my spare time. I am interested in responding to the science in my work in a sense-able way – through the body and its senses. I am very excited by this opportunity and can’t wait to start.“
Von Bismarck will visit CERN with his mentor from the Ars Electronica Futurelab in January 2012 for an initial one-week visit, when he will choose his CERN science inspiration partner. He is expected to start his two-month residency at CERN March 2012, following it with a one-month residency with the transdisciplinary team at Futurelab at Ars Electronica, Linz. The work and experience of this joint collaborative residency will be showcased at the next Ars Electronica Festival in 2012.
Von Bismarck recently studied with the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson in Berlin and won the Golden Nica of the Prix Ars Electronica in 2008.
Ariane Koek, arts@CERN,
ariane.koek@cern.ch
Further information:
http://www.aec.at/prix/de/collide/
http://arts.web.cern.ch/collide
NOTES FOR EDITORS:
1. The Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN Jury 2012 comprised
Gerfried Stocker – Director, Ars Electronica
Horst Hoertner – Director Futurelab, Ars Electronica
Ariane Koek – International Arts, CERN
Dr Michael Doser – CERN Cultural Board member and physicist
Program Coordinator: Matthew Gardiner
2. The residency will be at CERN for 2 months and Ars Electronica for 1 month.
The artist will choose a science inspiration partner for the duration of his residency as well as having a mentor from Futurelab for technical development and artistic production. The artist and his two mentors will participate in a creative blog by which the public can follow the creative process. The artist will have an office on site at CERN and give fortnightly lunchtime laboratories to the CERN community. At the start and end of the three-month residency period, the artist in residence will give a joint lecture with their science inspiration partner at the Globe of Science and Innovation at CERN. The work emerging from the residency will be showcased at the Ars Electronica Festival 2012. Ars Electronica, Futurelab provides 10,000 Euros Prize money. The residency is fully funded thanks to two private donors.
3. Julius Von Bismarck
Von Bismarck currently 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.’
Recent works include Von der Decke zum Boden in Berlin (a metal sphere, falling from the ceiling to the ground) which played with ideas of gravity and movement; Public Face 2 - the Fühlometer) an eight-metre-high smiley made out of steel and neon tubes, installed on a lighthouse, showing the present emotions of the citizens of Lindau; and Self revolving Torus – a kinetic sculpture of the universe. For more examples of his work see http://www.juliusvonbismarck.com/bank/index.php?/test/
4. Honorary Mentions
Honorary Mentions
Natasa Teofilovic (Serbia)
Works in diverse media including experimental video, 3D animation interactive performance and graphic representations of space. Key works include
http://vimeo.com/user5395533
Arnoud Noordegraaf (Netherlands) and Adrian Hornsby (UK)
The new interdisciplinary music theatre collaboration between composer and director Arnoud Noordegraaf and writer Adrian Hornsby began in 2008, with the making of two multi media operas which are both currently in production.
http://www.inexcelsisvideo.net/Arnoud_Noordegraaf
http://www.adrianhornsby.com/R_theatrefolder/asbigasthesky.html
Eno Henze (Germany)
This prolific generative artist and coder, who has a background in physics, is now starting to work with live performance, dance and music.
http://www.enohenze.de/
1. The Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN is the digital arts strand of the 3 year Collide@CERN programme initiated by CERN in 2011The digital arts prize marks a 3 year science/arts cultural partnership and creative collaboration between CERN and Ars Electronica – which began with CERN’s cooperation with Origin – the Ars Electronica Festival in 2011.
2. Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is part of UNTERNEHMENSGRUPPE STADT LINZ. Incorporated in 1995, Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is in charge of planning and producing the Ars Electronica Festival and the Prix Ars Electronica, and responsible for the operation of the Ars Electronica Center and the Ars Electronica Futurelab. Funding is provided by the city of City of Linz, the Province of Upper Austria and the Republic of Austria. The managing executives of Ars Electronica Linz GmbH are Gerfried Stocker (artistic director) and Diethard Schwarzmair (chief financial officer).
3. 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, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Romania is a candidate for accession. Israel 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.