Where Science Meets Art
Meetings between science and art, an exchange of ideas between scientists and artists
Curator: Yivsam Azgad
Contemporary conceptual art, much like the art of science, sprouts from an inner seed, within the awareness of the artist or scientist. Each must then undergo a rigorous process of refinement, isolation and experimentation. Each of these worlds is based on a central tenet of precision and consistency. In this, the ideologies and roots of the two appear not only to approach each other, but to abut in many places.
At the Weizmann Institute of Science, art is seen to be a complementary activity, so that scientists and artists can, together, observe the world from a higher vantage point in a more critical and precise way. In other words, the synergy that occurs when science and art are brought together – when the two world views meet – can lead to more significant achievements in the enduring quest to understand the world and our place in it.
Based on this concept, art exhibits have been displayed in various work spaces in the Weizmann Institute of Science in recent years – primarily showings of contemporary Israeli art.
Leah Goldberg
"Is It True"
Stone Administration Building, Entrance floor
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Leah Goldberg (1911-1970) was born in Germany, raised in Kaunas, Lithuania, immigrated to Israel (in 1935) and joined Avraham Shlonsky’s “Yachdav” literary movement, along with Nathan Alterman. From that point on, her work became an indelible part of the Israeli spirit, leaving a lasting legacy....
Oran Hoffmann
"Point"
The David Lopatie International Conference Center
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Can a line be composed of points? Geometrically, a point is a precise position in space that has no dimensions of its own — an inherent paradox that has long sparked debate. The ancient Greeks, adhering to the definition of a point as zero-dimensional, argued that the answer to the question posed...
Hanan Shafir – Photography
"As the Evening Rolls In"
Artist wall in Sela Auditorium
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Children are born, plants sprout, and, reaching maturity, both bloom — radiant and full of a passion to the other sex, which drives them to pass on their characteristics and resources to the next generation. Full bloom is life’s most vibrant, alluring, and intense period. But once this purpose is...
28 designers
"Posts of Hope"
Stone Administration Building, first floor
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At the seam line between the anniversary of October 7th and its consequences, and the start of a new year, whose future is unknown, we, the Association of Graphic Designers in Israel and the 'Social Design' community, chose to distribute posts of hope—hope that remembers but yearns for something...
Rickey Benjamin
"Simple fractions"
Raoul and Graziella de Picciotto Building for Scientific and Technical Support, 3rd floor
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Ambitious scientists who sought to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying evolution sparked M.C. Escher’s interest and imagination. The contemporary zeitgeist – a spirit of constant change and innovation – led him to develop a new branch of research, which can be dubbed “evolutionary...
Galya Lutzky
"Through the Looking-Glass"
Dr. Karl and Leila Ribstein Center for Information Technology
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Geometric structures and the “relationships” among them, as well as with other bodies, are a topic of fascination for Galya Lutzky, an alumna of the Moscow State Pedagogical University in mathematics. Simultaneously, she is also exploring how the interplay between ordered patterns can reveal the...
Michael Slatkine
"E-Pencil"
Feinberg Graduate School
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Landscape painting on the Weizmann Institute campus, using a smartphone screen.
Intuition is Michael Slatkine’s first tool. His smartphone – which he terms “my studio” – merely provides the technology and space for the creative act to take place. He views the smartphone screen’s small dimensions as...
Paintings by girls and boys
"Women scientists"
Stone building, ground floor
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Exhibited at the complex of the Office for the advancement of women in science and gender equality
Orit Bechar and Yossi Shohat
"Photographed at the Weizmann Institute of Science"
Raoul and Graziella de Picciotto Building for Scientific and Technical Support, 2nd floor
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Hundreds, even thousands of people enter the Weizmann Institute of Science every single day. All are well aware of the importance of aesthetics and beauty to Institute life. The meticulous landscaping, the saplings alongside mature trees, the diverse flora, and painstaking cultivation – all these...
Joshua Griffit
"Bearing Souvenirs"
Stone Administration Building, first floor
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Joshua Griffit is on the move. So claimed Gideon Ofrat in the 1990s. According to Ofrat, in those years Griffit – through his paintings – traveled in cars, trams, ships, carriages, motorcycles, airplanes, horses, sail and motor boats, gondolas, and anything that could take him away from here, in a...
Map
"Mapping in Science and Art"
Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Building for Biomedical Research
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You are Here
In one of the more memorable scenes in The King and I, Anna (played by Deborah Kerr in the movie), points to Siam on a map of the world. The king’s many children raise a hue and cry: The Siam they know is a large, glorious and populous country. It is not, as the songwriter Meir...