5th CNIO Art and Science Symposium 2024

The Art and Science symposia organised by the National Centre for Cancer Research (CNIO) aim to promote dialogue between artists and scientists and are part of the CNIO Art initiative.

Every year, CNIO Art facilitates interaction between artists and scientists of international standing in order to consider major themes affecting humanity through science, from quantum physics to the origins of molecular biology. Artists of the stature of Eva Lootz, Carmen Calvo, Chema Madoz, Daniel Canogar, Susanna Solana and Amparo Garrido have interacted with scientists such as Margarita Salas, Juan Luis Arsuaga, Ignacio Cirac, Sarah Teichmann and Elizabeth Blackburn. These collaborations conclude with the creation of works of art that become part of the CNIO’s holdings.

The 2024 edition of CNIO Art will benefit from the participation of the couple comprising Dora García, winner of the National Visual Arts Prize 2021, and David Nogués-Bravo, macro-ecologist at the Globe Institute in Copenhagen. Inspired by the theme of climate change and the loss of biodiversity, Dora García has created an audio-visual work, END (two prologues) based on the trip the artist and scientist jointly made to the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic.

The two are taking part in the 5th Art and Science Symposium to be held on 21 February in collaboration with the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, entitled “Art, science and ecology in the face of climate change”. It will also feature talks from other experts, such as Carlos Jiménez, emeritus professor of aesthetics at the Universidad Europea in Madrid and an art historian and critic; Esther Pizarro, a multi-disciplinary artist, researcher and senior professor at the Universidad Europea in Madrid; Anna Traveset, a biologist and researcher at the CSIC; and Jaime Vindel, an art and cultural historian and a researcher at the CSIC.

Following their talks, participants will join María Blasco and Juan de Nieves, director and curator of CNIO Art respectively, in a round table aimed at establishing fruitful dialogue and shedding light on the urgent issue under discussion from the standpoint of their different disciplines and perspectives.