The exhibition, held in San Sebastián, Spain, invites eleven artists, including former CERN artists-in-residence, to explore the quantum realm
The principles of quantum physics extend beyond the subatomic world and have vastly shaped contemporary culture. Over the last decade, Arts at CERN has been at the forefront of facilitating this dialogue, welcoming artists to the Laboratory to engage with the complexities and broader implications of quantum theory.
To mark the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, Arts at CERN has joined forces with Tabakalera and the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) to present the exhibition Quantum Visions. Hosted at Tabakalera in San Sebastián, Spain, the exhibition features the work of eleven artists, who explore the quantum realm through a kaleidoscope of perspectives and media.
Curated by Mónica Bello, former Head of Arts at CERN, Quantum Visions integrates the Laboratory’s research into contemporary culture and fosters public engagement with science through artistic expression. Drawing on experimentation, analogy and speculation, the artists’ works question the limits of knowledge and propose alternative ways of experiencing the world.
The exhibition features new works by former CERN artists-in-residence, alongside those of other internationally acclaimed artists. Alice Bucknell’s Small Void (2025), a “call-and-response” video game conceived in dialogue with CERN theoretical physicists, invites players to explore the limits of language, attachment theory and cosmic annihilation. To build the game’s world, Bucknell collaborated with CERN’s Mechanical and Materials Engineering group, using nano-scanning techniques to integrate the paradoxical nature of lichens.
Joan Heemskerk presents two new works from her CERN residency. Entangled binary network (Hello, world!) (2024) is a foam–UV-light installation speculating on a quantum internet network connecting two entangled fields. In the video work NO MATTER (2024), Heemskerk applies mathematical transformations to visualisations of particle events and integrates interviews with scientists in the speculative search for “no matter”.
Filmmaker Jaione Camborda, winner of the 2023 San Sebastián Film Festival’s Golden Shell, unveils Ensayo fílmico sobre la sordoceguera (Filmic essay on deafblindness, 2025), an Arts at CERN commission. In this video installation, the projection remains inaccessible, its content unknowable. By challenging the screen’s function as a receptive surface, Camborda creates a tension between perception and speculation, drawing viewers into a field of possibilities to imagine what remains hidden.
Quantum Visions also features works by former Arts at CERN residents Nicole L’Huillier, the artist duo Semiconductor, and Yunchul Kim, as well as renowned artists Abelardo Gil-Fournier, Adriana Knouf, Libby Heaney, Marina Rosenfeld and Yuri Pattison.
Quantum Visions will remain in San Sebastián until 8 June 2025, before travelling to HEK (Haus der Elektronischen Künste) in Basel and MU Hybrid Art House in Eindhoven later in the year.
The mission of Arts at CERN – a project supported by the CERN & Society Foundation – is to facilitate dialogue between artists and the CERN community. Since the launch of the first artist residency in 2012, over 250 artists from around the globe have been invited to experience how fundamental science can address the unresolved questions about our universe, engaging with over 1000 scientists and the entire vibrant community of CERN.