The headquarters of the Instituto Galego de Física de Altas Enerxías (IGFAE) hosted this Wednesday the presentation of the IGFAE ArtLab Residencies, a project carried out in collaboration with the Cidade da Cultura Foundation and the research center of the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) and the Xunta de Galicia.
The initiative is open to individuals or collectives involved in the Galician contemporary art scene, working in all kinds of artistic formats (painting, sculpture, photography, performance art, object art, sound art, net art, interactive art, participatory art, among others). Proposals should open up to new perspectives in the fields of art, science, technology, and society, whether through a completely new work or the expansion of an existing one.
The call for applications, open until October 20, 2025, aims to develop an artistic project related to the research carried out at IGFAE, thus allowing both the Institute and Cidade da Cultura to explore alternative forms of communication through art and with society.
The selected proposal will receive a grant of €8,000, in addition to accommodation in a university residence during the project’s development. The full terms and conditions of the call are available on the websites of IGFAE and Cidade da Cultura.
Residency and Mentorship at the IGFAE and Cidade da Cultura Facilities
In order to build bridges between artistic and scientific practices, the IGFAE ArtLab Residencies will offer the selected project the opportunity to work for several weeks at the institute, which has just inaugurated its new headquarters in the Monte da Condesa building, on the South Campus of Santiago de Compostela.
To become familiar with the various areas of physics in which the Institute is active, a dedicated workspace will be provided within IGFAE, allowing close engagement with its research, objectives, scientific methods, and experimental approaches.
During the residency, the selected proposal will also receive scientific and artistic mentorship, through collaborations with IGFAE staff and professionals experienced in curating and managing artistic projects. The residency will also take place in the REGA spaces of the Cidade da Cultura, where the artist(s) will benefit from their own workspace, as well as technical and human resources provided by Cidade da Cultura.
The press conference was attended by Pilar Murias, Vice-Rector for Students and Culture at USC; Anxo M. Lorenzo, Director General for Culture at the Xunta de Galicia; and Carlos Salgado, Director of IGFAE.
As the Vice-Rector stated, “we are going to witness a process of artistic creation from a scientific perspective,” in a direction “that we hope will become well-established.” “This is the path the University must follow—opening itself to society—and for this, art is a fundamental means,” she said.
Carlos Salgado expressed a similar view, explaining that this project is something “we’ve had in mind for years, within the framework of the IGFAE Labs, to open new avenues of communication with society.” “We want these residencies to generate new questions—ones we don’t always ask from within physics—and also to enrich the internal life of the IGFAE, sparking new dynamics,” he stated.
During the presentation, Anxo M. Lorenzo emphasized that this call for projects “opens new opportunities to connect the country’s creators with the cutting-edge work being carried out in Galicia in the field of physics. It also expands the scope of the Gaiás Artistic Residencies program — a line of support for creative work promoted by the Department of Culture, Language and Youth, which in 2025 alone will benefit more than 150 artists and around 40 technicians.”
IGFAE ArtLab
Following IGFAE’s first accreditation as a María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence in 2017, the IGFAE Labs were launched — spaces designed to guide the center’s work toward the principles of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI).
Three lines of action were created: in education (EduLab), technology transfer (TechLab), and the arts (ArtLab). The latter serves as a space for dialogue between art and science, where IGFAE researchers connect with external collaborators to propose and develop new ideas and build bridges between physics and various forms of artistic expression. In this way, ArtLab seeks to foster reflection, imagination, and creative thinking.
In recent years, ArtLab has hosted projects such as Cosmoloxías (with Irene Dubrovsky, Pazo de Fonseca, 2019), Instruments of Vision (with Armin Linke, Mónica Bello, Arts at CERN, Iglesia de la Universidad, 2024), and series such as Transfronteirizas (ongoing since 2020).
