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The second Collide@CERN-Geneva prize is awarded to a film maker

Geneva, 26 March 2013. CERN1 and the City and the Canton of Geneva awarded the second Collide@CERN-Geneva2 prize to the 47 year-old film maker Jan Peters3, for his proposal to explore the world of CERN from a highly personal perspective.

Jan Peters has divided his time between Switzerland and his native Germany for many years. An artist and film maker, he is known particularly for personal documentaries charting his own life, and his films have won prizes at festivals around the world. During his residency at CERN, he intends to address the links between science and art, politics and philosophy. "My questions are very similar to those of physicists, who are passionate about the same central issues such as the meaning of life", he explained in his proposal.

In awarding him the Collide@CERN-Geneva prize, the jury4 recognised Peters as "an author who makes profoundly personal films that probe and dissect reality. CERN's science and environment will become his new field of research". 

"We're delighted to announce our fourth artist-in-residence in the framework of the Collide@CERN programme", said CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer. "We are very much looking forward to seeing his work and the new insights he will bring into our Laboratory, just as the previous winner of the Collide@CERN-Geneva prize, the choreographer Gilles Jobin, did".

Peters is expected to take up his three-month CERN residency in autumn 2013. He is the second winner of the Collide@CERN-Geneva award, which is part of a three-year partnership between CERN and the City and the Canton of Geneva. He will choose a scientific partner who will provide him with inspiration throughout his residency. They will have their own blog, which will allow the public to follow the creative process.

Like his predecessor Gilles Jobin, Peters will also organise artistic events for the CERN personnel. He will have an office on the CERN site and will give a joint lecture with his scientific partner in the Globe of Science and Innovation at the start and end of his residency. The residency is funded by the City and the Canton of Geneva in partnership with CERN. The insurance of all artists participating in the programme is sponsored by UNIQA SA.

Contact:

Ariane Koek, CERN cultural specialist
ariane.koek@cern.ch

For more information:

  • Collide@CERN website
  • Collide@CERN Facebook site
  • Twitter ArtsAtCern
1. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics. It has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its member states are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Romania is a candidate for accession. Cyprus, Israel and Serbia are associate members in the pre-stage to membership. India, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have observer status.
2. Collide@CERN-Geneva is the second component of the three-year Collide@CERN artist-in-residence programme launched by CERN in 2011. The prize, which is jointly funded by the City and the Canton of Geneva, is open to artists who were born or who live or work in the Geneva area. It comprises a three-month residency at CERN, a grant of 15,000 CHF for the artist and a further grant of 15,000 CHF for development costs.
3. Born in Germany in 1966, Jan Peters is a short-film and documentary maker and has also written several radio plays. He is a central figure on the German Super 8 film scene, and also makes use of a wide variety of other media for his work. He divides his time between Germany, where he teaches, and Geneva, where he shares a workshop with his wife, the director Marie-Catherine Theiler. His recent films include Time's Up (2009), which is typical of his style. The film, which was produced with Marie-Catherine Theiler, is about how a car accident brought them face to face with the fleeting nature of life.
4. The members of the jury for the film category of the 2013 Collide@CERN-Geneva prize were: Jean-Bernard Mottet, cultural advisor, City of Geneva; Thylane Pfister, cultural advisor for dance and cinema, Republic and Canton of Geneva; Emmanuel Cuénod, Editor of Ciné-Bulletin; Ariane Koek, International Arts, CERN; Michael Doser, CERN scientist and member of the CERN Cultural Board.