Last Friday marked the official kick-off of our collaborative project with the South Tyrolean Artists' Association Südtiroler Künstlerbund. Over 60 artists and scientists applied with their projects for exCHANGE - our jury selected twelve of them. Six tandems, each comprising an artist and a researcher, will now embark on creating a work of art over the coming months that addresses the topic of inequality in an innovative manner, at the crossroads of art and research.

Our world is defined by various forms of inequality, encompassing the impacts of climate change, the distribution of wealth, access to essential services like healthcare and education, as well as issues of cultural representation. This intricate web of disparities presents new challenges for scientific endeavors in terms of both conducting research and communicating its findings. So, it's time to say goodbye to disciplinary boundaries and explore even supposedly unusual paths while conveying content through art.

The resulting artworks will be showcased in an exhibition at the new premises of the Artists' Association in autumn. However, the involvement doesn't end there. The scientists from the Center for Advanced Studies, who are guiding this project, also harbor a broader research interest—namely, exploring the collaboration between science and art itself. How can the analytical rigor of scientific inquiry synergize with the imaginative power of artistic creation? What does effective collaboration entail, and how can we navigate the challenges that arise?