Invited to take part in the 12th edition of the Salon Art Genève 2024 to present its art collection, Fondation Thalie organized an off-site “Créateurs Urgence Climat” event as part of the ArtTalks conference program of the fair.
Linking art, science and ecology, this conversation between the artist Claudia Comte, a major figure on the Swiss and international scene based in the Basel region, and the Spanish curator Mónica Bello, Head of the Arts at CERN programme – the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva – is an invitation to explore biomorphic universes and symbiotic forms, techno-scientific knowledge and cosmic phenomena.
Claudia Comte (b. 1983, Grancy) is a Swiss artist based in Basel, Switzerland. Her practice is guided by a longstanding interest in teasing out the history and memory of biomorphic forms through traditional hand processes, industrial and machine technologies. Comte’s site-specific installations bring together monumental wall paintings and sculptures playfully inspired by organic patterns and morphology, paying testament to the intelligence and transformative capacities of the ecological world. Her work has been widely presented, including Solo Houses, Matarranña (2023), Globus Public Art Project in collaboration with Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2023), Casa Wabi, Mexico 2023, König Galerie im KHK Wien (2022), Belgrade Biennale (2021), Museo Nacional Thyssen- Bornemisza, Madrid (2021), Castello di Rivoli, Rome (2019), among others.
Mónica Bello is art Historian and Curator. Since 2015, she is Head of Arts at CERN at the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva, where she leads and supervises the laboratory’s art strategy and the artistic programs (residencies, art commissions, exhibitions). Curator of Exploring the Unknown, the inaugural art exhibition for the CERN Science Gateway, the new visitor centre of the Laboratory designed by Renzo Piano, her most recent curated exhibition is Dark Matters for the Science Gallery Melbourne, and the Icelandic Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale with the artist Sigurður Guðjónsson. Bello works internationally participating in selection committees, advisory boards, and mentorship programs. She is a regular speaker at conferences and active in several programmes in Europe and globally, where art and cultural innovation are the focus.
Created in 2020 by Fondation Thalie, the “Créateurs Urgence Climat” programme of conversations invites artists, designers, thinkers and scientists to the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris each month to share new knowledge in the light of the climate transition and to think about reasoned artistic production in the era of a post-carbon society. Further info online.
In partnership with Art Genève
