After almost two years of Art & Science residencies, Bozar Centre for Fine Arts (Brussels) presents the artistic results (drawings, paintings, video artworks, experimental ceramics…) of a collaborative process in which science and tech laboratories have opened up to artistic invention to provide unconventional responses to planetary challenges.
The boundaries between science and art have been completely destabilized by the Anthropocene — the most recent period in Earth’s history, when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems.
From May 6 to June 19, 2022, Bozar is bringing together in its Bozar Lab artworks that emerged from a collaborative process in which science and tech laboratories have opened up to artistic invention. The impulse for such collaborations resides in the here and now of climate breakdown and biodiversity collapse, a planetary crisis.
The exhibition “Colliding Epistemes: Science for Art’s sake?“, curated by Maja and Reuben Fowkes, investigates the consequences of bringing artistic positions and scientific expertise into close proximity, exploring the friction that arises from the collision of disciplines, methodologies and mindsets. The diversity of approaches in this exhibition reflects the eclectic palette of scientific expertise in the Studiotopia project, from oncology and psychology to chemistry and biology. The results? They are equally wide-ranging: from drawings and paintings, to video artworks and experimental ceramics.
Curators
Maja and Reuben Fowkes (London, UK) are founders of the Translocal Institute for Contemporary Art, co-directors of the Postsocialist Art Centre (PACT) at University College London and authors of Art and Climate Change (Thames & Hudson, 2022).
Studiotopia artists and scientists
Sandra Lorenzi & Jean-Christophe Marine, Kuang-Yi Ku & Sofie Goormachtig, Hypercomf & Markos K. Digenis, 3 137 & Dr. Audrey-Flore Ngomsik, Alexandra Pirici & Paco Calvo, Ciprian Mureşan & Sanneke Stigter—Sven Dupré, Christiaan Zwanikken & Emmanuel Grimaud—Dm Hoyt, Dmitry Gelfand—Evelina Domnitch & Florian Schreck—Guillaume Schweicher, Oswaldo Maciá & Chris Bean—Emilia Leszkowicz, Maja Smrekar & Jonas Jørgensen, Kat Austen & Indre Žliobaitė—Laurence Gill, Voldemārs Johansons & Hugo Thienpont—Alexander Kish—Antoine Reserbat-Plantey, Siobhán McDonald & Chris Bean—Arwyn Jones—Emily Shuckburgh.
