Monica Bello (art historian) facts for kids

Mónica Bello is an art expert from Spain. She is a curator (someone who plans and organizes art exhibitions) and an art historian (someone who studies the history of art). Mónica is known for bringing together art, science, and technology. She helps artists explore new ideas about how science and technology change our world. For over 15 years, she has organized art shows and events all around the world. She often works with artists, designers, researchers, and scientists.

Since 2015, Mónica has been the head of arts at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. CERN is a huge science lab where scientists study tiny particles that make up everything. At CERN, Mónica creates special art programs. These programs allow artists to work with particle physicists and engineers. The artists then create new artworks inspired by their time at the lab.

In 2018, Mónica was a guest curator for the Audemars Piguet Art Commission at Art Basel. She chose artists for this special project and organized the final art show. The artist duo Semiconductor created a project called HALO for this commission.

Before working at CERN, Mónica had other important roles. From 2010 to 2015, she was the artistic director of VIDA at Fundación Telefónica in Madrid, Spain. This award encouraged creative projects about the idea of life. She also started and ran the education department at Laboral Centro de Arte in Gijón, Spain, from 2007 to 2010. In 2004, she helped start Capsula, a platform focused on art, science, and nature. In 2003, she won the Inéditos Emergent Curators Award. Her winning exhibition, "Organisms," was one of the first shows in Spain to feature "bioart." Bioart uses living things, like cells, to create art.

Cool Art Projects Mónica Bello Has Curated

Mónica Bello has organized many interesting art exhibitions. Here are some of them:

Semiconductor: Exploring Art and Science

• Semiconductor (October - December 2019): This was a solo exhibition by the artist duo Semiconductor at Museo Nacional de Cerillos in Santiago, Chile. It was part of the 14th Bienal de Artes Mediales de Santiago.

Quàntica: Art Meets Quantum Physics

• Quàntica (April - September 2019): This exhibition was held at CCCB in Barcelona. Mónica co-curated it with José-Carlos Mariátegui. The show helped people understand the basics of quantum physics. It did this by bringing together the creative work of both scientists and artists. Visitors could explore freely and learn about new ideas in modern science.

Broken Symmetries: Art Inspired by CERN

• Broken Symmetries (November 2018 - March 2019): This exhibition started at FACT in Liverpool. It featured ten art projects created by artists who had worked at CERN. The show then traveled to Barcelona, Brussels, and Nantes, where it was called 'Quantica/Quantum' from 2019 to 2021. Mónica co-curated this show with José-Carlos Mariátegui. The artists included Julieta Aranda, Dianne Bauer, James Bridle, Juan Cortés, Jack Jelfs and Haroon Mirza, Yunchul Kim, Lea Porsager, Semiconductor, Suzanne Treister, and Yu-Chen Wang.

HALO: An Immersive Art Experience

• HALO. Audemars Piguet Arts Commission (June 2018): This project was shown at Art Basel in Basel. The Audemars Piguet Art Commission helps artists create very complex and impactful artworks. The British artist duo Semiconductor (Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt) created HALO. It was an immersive art installation that used real data from the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Dark Matter: The Invisible World Around Us

• Dark Matter, The Invisible Around Us (October 2017): This exhibition was part of the 5th Touch Me Festival in Zagreb. Mónica co-curated it with KONTEJNER. The show explored hidden events and things we can't easily see or feel. It showed how artists create ways to explore and interact with the invisible parts of nature.

Vanishing Points: Digital Technology and Our World

• Vanishing Points (September - November 2015): This exhibition was held at Centro Nacional de las Artes in Mexico City. It was part of Transitio06. The show looked at how digital technologies have changed our understanding of the world and created a shared global awareness.

Publications and Articles

Mónica Bello has also written articles and contributed to books about art and science. Here are a few examples:

• Bello Bugallo, M. and Gracie, A., (2020). "Black Holes and Objectivity." Artnodes, (25).
• Bello M. (2019) "Field Experiences: Fundamental Science and Research in the Arts." In: Wuppuluri S., Wu D. (eds) On Art and Science. The Frontiers Collection. Springer, Cham.
• Bello, M., & Mariátegui, J.-C. (2019). QUANTUM: In search of the invisible. Barcelona: Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona CCCB Press and Communication Office of the Barcelona Provincial Council. ISBN: 978-84-9803-885-9

See also

In Spanish: Mónica Bello para niños