Quantum

Scientists and artists have plenty in common, including active imaginations and a nearly insatiable curiosity. Both, in some way, also share a common goal, which is to understand the mystery of life. The CCCB presents 'Quantum', an international project curated by Mónica Bello, commissioner and director of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva; and José-Carlos Mariátegui, scientist, writer and curator who has worked for two decades in projects related to art, science and technology. University of Barcelona professor of theoretical physics José Ignacio Latorre, who participated as an advisor, equates the explosion of quantum principles with the discovery of fire and the invention of the Internet.

But what is the quantum world, and how is it explained to the general public in a museum without being reductionist? Quantum physics studies the functioning of nature from the microscopic plane, covering everything from why the sun shines to why glass is transparent. We live with it in technologies such as laser or GPS, computers, sensors... but it's still a science that's in its infancy: of the 50,000 generations of human beings who have lived on Earth, only three have lived with quantum mechanics. 'It will mark us as a species and, therefore, generates philosophical questions of the first order,' says Judit Carrera, director of the CCCB.

This exhibition is structured as a dialogue among ten projects by artists who have spent time at CERN and nine laboratory research projects that report the history and current affairs of physics and quantum mechanics. At the entrance, a piece that defies the laws of traditional physics invites the public to leave all prejudices outside the room. This is a new way of understanding the world in which chance – which science has denied until recently – has a fundamental role, and simultaneity – that a phenomenon occurs at the same time in two time-spaces – is possible.

'Quantum' is complemented by parallel activities, some also for kids, which aim to have an impact on science as an open and collaborative space for all.