Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN:
Second Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN laureate announced
(Linz / Geneva, November 8, 2012) The second Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN Residency Award was today awarded to the 65 year-old american artist, Bill Fontana. He is an artist with an international reputation for his pioneering experiments in sound art work, which has been featured in some of the world’s leading arts institutions, such as Tate Modern and The Whitney Museum of American Art. During his residency at CERN, Bill Fontana will also explore the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. “As an artist I am always looking for situations to expand my horizons and this joint residency presents me with a tremendous learning opportunity, so it was irresistible”, said Bill Fontana.
Sound Art meets Particle Physics
“We are truly honoured that an artist of Bill Fontana’s reputation and international standing should even think of entering a competition like the Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN . It clearly demonstrates how this experiment making collisions arts and science is really capturing the zeitgeist and is really exciting artists from all over the world at every stage of their careers, “ said Gerfried Stocker, Artistic Director of Ars Electronica Linz, CERN’s international cultural partner. “We are delighted that in the second year of our cultural partnership with Ars Electronica, Linz, we have selected yet another outstanding artist to be the artist in residence at CERN. The physics of sound has a long tradition of inspiring artists, so it will be particularly fascinating to see how the physics and technology of the Large Hadron Collider will inspire one of the world’s pioneers of sound art”, said the Director General of CERN Rolf Dieter Heuer.
Bill Fontana will visit CERN with his mentor from the Ars Electronica Futurelab in January 2013, for an initial one-week visit, when he will be matched with his CERN science inspiration partner. He is expected to start his two-month residency at CERN in June 2013, followed by a one-month residency with the transdisciplinary team of the Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz, followed by an appearance at the Ars Electronica Festival 2013.
Bill Fontana (US)
Bill Fontana (born USA 1947) is an American composer and artist who developed an international reputation for his pioneering experiments in sound. SInce the early 70’s Fontana has used sound as a sculptural medium to interact with and transform our perceptions of visual and architectural spaces. He has realized sound sculptures and radio projects for museums and broadcast organizations around the world. His work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, the Post Museum in Frankfurt, the Art History and Natural History Museums in Vienna, both Tate Modern and Tate Britain in London, the 48th Venice Biennale, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, the Art Gallery of NSE in Sydney and the new Kolumba Museum in Cologne. He has done major radio sound art projects for the BBC, the European Broadcast Union, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, National Public Radio, West German Radio (WDR), Swedish Radio, Radio France and the Austrian State Radio. In 2009, Bill Fontana won a Golden Nica at the Prix Ars Electronica (Digital Musics & Sound Art) for his work Speeds of Time Versions 1 and 2.
Entries from 49 countries
The award to Bill Fontana was made following the jury meeting to assess entries from a record 49 countries around the world, including new entries from Nepal, Uruguay, Paraguay and Jordan, showing how the award is increasingly attracting international attention. Like in the previous year, entries came from very diverse artistic domains – including media art, sculpture and painting to choreography, scenography, music, literature and even folk music. This year, the jury also made awarded an Honorary Mention to the Mexican artist, Ale de la Puente who often works in film and explores the world of time and space with often deceptively tiny, domestic tools provoking deep reflections.
Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN
The Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN Residency Award is an international competition by CERN and Ars Electronica. Artists from all fields are encouraged to apply: experimental sound work and music, architecture and new design, sculpture, generative art and film, social media projects and new design that explores how people relate science and technology are all welcome. The only proviso is that applicants must use digital techniques in the production and/or the development of their proposed project.
press release: Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN: Bill Fontana Wins Residency Award / PDF
A blog-entry on Bill Fontana’s Residency Award can be found here.
Photo:
Bill Fontana in 2009 / rubra / Printversion / Album
Photo:
CERN – LHC Tunnel / Maximilien Brice / Printversion / Album
