Copenhagen takes over the Collide Award from Barcelona
Between 2019 and 2022, Barcelona hosted the winners of three editions of the Collide Award for part of their combined artistic residency at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. Following this period of agreement between Barcelona City Council and Arts at CERN, which was one of the objectives of the Barcelona Science Plan 2020-2023, the Swiss organisation has now announced that the artistic residencies will be taken over by Copenhagen for the next three years. Coinciding with the announcement, Arts at CERN has opened, until 8 May, applications for the 2023 call for artists and artistic collectives to submit their applications to advance their research in contact with the scientific and artistic community of CERN and Copenhagen.
The call allows artists of all ages and nationalities to propose artistic creation and research projects inspired by the knowledge generated at CERN through a two-month residency at CERN and a further month in a collaborative creation space in Copenhagen. By way of example, in recent years, thanks to the residencies promoted by the international award through Arts at CERN and the Barcelona City Council, the winners have been able to develop and experience their artistic projects and extend their research through the city’s scientific and cultural network.
More specifically, the winning proposals of the three editions resulting from Arts at CERN’s collaboration with Barcelona City Council were: Beyond Resolutions (2019 edition), by the Dutch artist Rosa Menkman, CPT Symmetry and Violations (2020 edition), by the US artistic duo Black Quantum Futurism composed of Camae Ayewa and Rasheedah Phillips, and Gusla (2021 edition), by the Polish Dorota Gawęda and the Lithuanian Eglé Kulbokaité. The artistic residency in Barcelona took place at Fabra i Coats, Barcelona Creation Factory, in the 2019 edition, and Hangar, Centre for Artistic Production and Research, in the 2020 and 2021 editions.
Next residency, Copenhagen
By passing the baton to Copenhagen Contemporary, the international art centre in the Danish capital, the project aims to follow in the footsteps of the success achieved in Barcelona and provide new opportunities for artists from all over the world related to science and culture. In addition, the venue chosen for the next three years features exhibitions of large-scale art installations and creates partnerships and collaborative events between cultural genres, locally and internationally.
The first edition of Collide Copenhagen has officially been launched. Artists from any country in the world are invited to submit their proposals. For the first and subsequent annual calls in 2024 and 2025, Arts at CERN and Copenhagen Contemporary will invite awardees to reflect on the impact of science and research on contemporary culture. Proposals that consider the role of advanced technologies and new scientific models as major themes in contemporary culture are welcome.
Collide Copenhagen is particularly looking for artistic proposals that reflect on themes such as artificial intelligence, modelling and analysis of large datasets, the emergence of quantum technologies and the interpretation of these themes from philosophical and ethical points of view. The artists or collectives selected for the 2023-2025 editions will be part of an ambitious exhibition at Copenhagen Contemporary in 2025, investigating the impact of technology on humanity.