‘Holographic Duality’ – a Tribute to Juan Maldacena

All is matter. From the tiniest element to the largest astrophysical object, matter is at the heart of it all. But how do we unify both? Elementary particles and Black holes are seemingly incompatible, but shouldn’t we just look differently?

Holographic Duality presents an artistic tribute to the work of Juan Maldacena. Starting from the tiniest elements in sound and vision – particles and glitches – the work attempts to bridge the gap between string theory and a black hole. Sonic matter activates resonating objects, but also fills the dark place in the center of the sound world. Visual matter surprisingly reveals a vibrant hidden world through unexpected interactions. While both seemingly develop independently, they unavoidably collide in an audiovisual explosion. But is this the end, or only a new beginning? 

Visual artist Klaas Verpoest and musician Vincent Caers, both in a PhD trajectory and residents at BAC Art Lab, share an interest in the common ground between art and science. Through recent concerts and installations, created in close collaboration with physicists prof. Thomas Hertog and prof. Stéphane Detournay, they explored astrophysical phenomena such as black holes and the edge of space and time. 

Simultaneously they encouraged their students at LUCA School of Arts to join the blend between space, image and sound. As part of the Knal Festival Verpoest co-curated the Exhibition ‘Collapse’ together with dr. Sandy Claes and Johan van Looveren in the context of the Media and Information Design (MIND) educational program. ‘Collapse’ is repeated February 16 to 18, in Brussels. For the cross-disciplinary course ‘Common Grounds’, both artists curated a night of installations and performances turning BAC Art Lab into an immersive environment centered around the theme of a ‘Theory of Everything or the possibility of being Nothing’, for which prof. Sylvia Wenmackers sparked the inspiration.

Especially for this event, they created a short performance as a tribute to the honorary doctorate of Juan Maldacena.

Performers:
Vincent Caers: Sound artist

Klaas Verpoest: Video artist