Innovative interferences of science, art, and technology are the axis of the international Touch Me Festival that has taken place every three years since 2005 and is organized by KONTEJNER | bureau of contemporary art praxis from Zagreb. Past festival editions tackled subjects such as intelligence, energy and information abuse, the notion of time and the fourth dimension, the imperative of pleasure and hedonism - subjects through which some of the most recent new media artworks from the local and international scene were presented.
The fifth edition of Touch Me Festival subtitled The Invisible Around Us, is curated by Mónica Bello, Spanish residential curator at Swiss CERN and head of Arts at CERN programme. The title implicates hidden events, emersions, and phenomena that cannot reach us at any degree of perceptual significance. One of the most intriguing emersion of this kind is dark matter – a mysterious substance that constitutes most of the matter that exists in our universe. The Invisible Around Us approaches the dark matter as a metaphor, a symbol of human boundaries and the limits of our perception, our knowledge, and reality. How can we explore hidden phenomena through science and through art, and how can we imagine something that exists beyond our comprehension are just some of the questions that we are trying to answer through this project. Artists Filip Borelli (HR), Iva Ćurić (HR), Martin Howse (UK), Ale de la Puente (MX), Semiconductor (UK) and Ana Sladetić & Nika Jurlin (HR) will present artworks which create new sensory sensations and bring new and unexpected experiences to the visitors.
project concept: KONTEJNER | bureau of contemporary art praxis, Zagreb
curatorial concept: Mónica Bello | curator and head of Arts at CERN in collaboration with KONTEJNER | bureau of contemporary art praxis
organization: KONTEJNER | bureau of contemporary art praxis, Zagreb and Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka
partner: Arts at CERN, Geneva
supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb – Municipal Office for Education, Culture and Sport, ‘’Kultura nova’’ Foundation, AMEXID – Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation