Care to dance?

The second part of the artistic programme Collide@CERN was officially launched at the beginning of November. The initiative, a dance and performance award, is the result of a partnership between CERN, the City of Geneva and the Canton of Geneva.

 

From left to right: Sami Kanaan, Rolf Heuer, and Charles Beer.

The project Collide@CERN was launched in September in the framework of CERN's new cultural policy (announced in an article published in Bulletin No. 50-51/2010). The project, whose main objective is to achieve a symbiosis between the imagination of artists and the creativity of scientists, features an artist-in-residence scheme that will run for three years.

The Organization has concluded two cultural partnerships for the purpose: one with Ars Electronica Linz, an Austrian organisation specialising in the digital arts, which will sponsor a digital arts prize (see article published in Bulletin No. 37-38 earlier this year), and the other with the City and the Canton of Geneva, which will sponsor the dance and performance award. Open to dancers and performers born or currently working in Geneva, the award was unveiled in the Globe on 4 November, when the application process was officially opened.

"Collide@CERN will allow dancers and choreographers from Geneva to encounter scientific domains that may be unfamiliar to them, explore new horizons, and express emotions that may surprise us and can help us to recapture the human element that seems to be sadly lacking in these times," said Charles Beer, State Councillor in charge of the Department of Public Instruction, Culture and Sport of the Republic and Canton of Geneva. "Partnerships between the world of science and the world of art are an excellent means of making both experimental fields more accessible to the public and heightening their impact," added Sami Kanaan, Administrative Councillor in charge of the City of Geneva's Department of Culture and Sport.

These cultural partnerships will be extended on a yearly basis until 2014, and there are plans to create additional awards in 2012 and beyond.

Further information about the Collide@CERN programme and the conditions of participation is available here.

 

by Anaïs Schaeffer