“I was sitting by the ocean one late summer afternoon, watching the waves rolling in and feeling the rhythm of my breathing, when I suddenly became aware of my whole environment as being engaged in a gigantic cosmic dance. […] As I sat on that beach my former experiences came to life; I 'saw' cascades of energy coming down from outer space, in which particles were created and destroyed in rhythmic pulses; I 'saw' the atoms of the elements and those of my body participating in this cosmic dance of energy; I felt its rhythm and I 'heard' its sound, and at that moment I knew that this was the Dance of Shiva, the Lord of Dancers worshiped by the Hindus.” (Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics, Shambhala Publications, 1975, p. 9).

On wednesday April 2, 2014, Alberto Di Fabio, one of the most important artists on the international scene, awarded in 2010 by the astrophysicist Remo Ruffini with the Premio Fondazione Michetti, presented the artworks exhibited in his new solo show at Gagosian Gallery in Geneva in a press conference at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, organized together with Ariane Koek, head of the International Arts at CERN, and the curator Eszter Csillag.

Son of an artist and a teacher of natural sciences Alberto Di Fabio has always had in his "genetic makeup" both the characteristics of homo faber, cultural definition of being human able to "create" as it has the divine fire donated by Prometheus, and of homo sapiens, the scientific definition of the human being. Moreover culture and science should not be thought as antithetical and contradictory since they are both instruments of knowledge and fundamental basis of human evolution. In other words, there is no separation between rationality and creativity but an ongoing and constant dialogue. The one without the other gives rise to a limited and limiting vision of the world.

With this background Alberto Di Fabio since over 20 years has been exploring the imagery of science through painting. With his practice the art becomes a magnifying glass through which what is small and invisible becomes big and visible and vice versa what is big and visible becomes small and invisible in a game that continually reverses the microscopic and macroscopic vision of the world and life inviting us to reflect on our perception of the world seeing additional layers of meaning beyond the appearances of everyday life. In his later artworks Alberto Di Fabio was heavily inspired by the Higgs boson or "God particle", theorized in 1964 and observed for the first time in 2012 in the ATLAS and CMS experiments conducted with the LHC accelerator in a ring that runs 27 km below the border between Switzerland and France. In the work of Alberto Di Fabio we can always find atoms, cells, neurons, cosmic visions and dances in a constant search for harmony between matter and spirit, between knowable and unknowable which thus lead him to an at all obvious affinity of intent with the CERN in Geneva making this experience a very important stage of his career and professional experience but also in the history of the relationship between art and science.

One of the most beautiful characteristics in life is to feel emotions, to marvel, to be surprised because not everything can be demonstrated, not everything can be understood through the reason. In this sense we should rediscover and practice all the curiosity with which Di Fabio investigates the foundations of life, material and spiritual at the same time, so that also we can see that cosmic dance of energy that is the life and soul of the universe.

Gagosian Gallery

19, Place de Longemalle
Geneve 1204 Switzerland
www.gagosian.com

Opening Hours

Every day from 18:00 until 20.00

Related images:
1. Alberto Di Fabio. Installation view at Gagosian Gallery, Geneve
2. Alberto Di Fabio, 2014, Geneve
3. Alberto Di Fabio. Installation view at Gagosian Gallery, Geneve
4. Alberto Di Fabio, Gagosian Gallery 2014
5. Alberto Di Fabio, Gagosian Gallery 2014
6. Alberto Di Fabio, Gagosian Gallery 2014

The next appointment is for the 30th of May.