Artists from the Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences in Alfter are collaborating with researchers from the Cluster of Excellence led by Professor Willem-Jan Beeren (architecture) and Professor Paul Petry (sculpture) to create a “WANDlabor,” or “wall lab,” in the foyer of Biomedical Center II on the Venusberg.
Over the course of a year, the artists will be joining forces to work on a space measuring 968 square feet (90 square meters), drawing their inspiration from the scientific findings being made inside the building. “It’s a collective creative process born out of the dialogue between the researchers and artists, among other things,” says Willem-Jan Beeren, who came up with the idea together with his colleague Paul Petry.
“The productive dialogue will produce an ever-evolving work of art that reflects the work being done locally in the laboratory on the wall of the building’s foyer, sometimes more tangibly, sometimes more abstractly.” He says that this will turn the wall, which separates the building’s public area from its laboratory wing, into a membrane between science and society, with art serving as the medium.