Carla Fendi Foundation funds 'Back to the Big Bang' science-art space at CERN
The Carla Fendi Foundation has financed 'Back to the Big Bang', a permanent exhibition space at CERN's Science Gateway in Geneva, designed by Renzo Piano. The installation, housed in a massive suspended cylinder crossed by transparent parallelepipeds, allows visitors to experience the universe's evolution through experiments, projections, and animations. Foundation president Maria Teresa Venturini Fendi conceived the project after a 2018 meeting with CERN Director General Fabiola Gianotti, who had just received the Carla Fendi STEM award alongside Nobel laureates François Englert and Peter Higgs. The foundation, established by Carla Fendi in 2007, has increasingly focused on science-art intersections, previously exploring AI, robotics, and augmented reality at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, where it has been main partner since 2012. For the 2023 edition, it presented 'Tutto è numero', an interdisciplinary project linking music and mathematics. Venturini Fendi, a humanities graduate raised in a creative environment, rejects the dichotomy between art and science, aiming to make science accessible, playful, and emotionally engaging. The space is described as a 21st-century Wunderkammer, evoking Thomas Aquinas's concept of 'capax universi'—the human capacity to contain the universe. The article was written by Alberto Mugnaini for Artribune.
Key facts
- Back to the Big Bang is a permanent space at CERN's Science Gateway in Geneva.
- The Science Gateway building was designed by Renzo Piano.
- The space features a horizontal cylinder suspended six meters above ground, intersected by transparent parallelepipeds crossing Route de Meyrin.
- Visitors can experience the universe's history from the formation of first stars and galaxies.
- Maria Teresa Venturini Fendi is president of the Carla Fendi Foundation and financed the project.
- She first heard of Science Gateway in 2018 from CERN Director General Fabiola Gianotti.
- Gianotti received the Carla Fendi STEM award together with Nobel laureates François Englert and Peter Higgs.
- The Higgs boson was theorized by Englert and Higgs and discovered at CERN in 2012.
- Carla Fendi Foundation was established in 2007 to promote cultural and artistic events.
- The foundation has been main partner of the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto since 2012.
- Previous foundation projects explored AI, robotics, and augmented reality.
- In 2023, the foundation presented 'Tutto è numero' linking music and mathematics.
- Venturini Fendi has a humanities background and values art-science integration.
- The space aims to make science accessible, playful, and emotionally engaging.
- The article was written by Alberto Mugnaini for Artribune.
Entities
Artists
- Renzo Piano
- Alberto Mugnaini
- Nelson Goodman
- Tommaso d'Aquino
- Carla Fendi
- Maria Teresa Venturini Fendi
- Fabiola Gianotti
- François Englert
- Peter Higgs
Institutions
- CERN
- Science Gateway
- Carla Fendi Foundation
- Fondazione Carla Fendi
- Festival dei Due Mondi
- Artribune
Locations
- Geneva
- Switzerland
- Route de Meyrin
- Spoleto
- Italy