Platform Dalí Launches 'What is real?' Programme Bridging Art and Science

A New Laboratory for Artistic Inquiry

Platform Dalí has established itself as a distinctive forum for experimental dialogue between creative practitioners and scientific researchers. Drawing inspiration from Salvador Dalí's enduring curiosity about scientific discovery, the initiative seeks to expand how artists perceive and represent the world around them.

The programme officially launched on 1 July 2026 under the stewardship of Mónica Bello, representing the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí. Its central question—'What is real?'—frames reality not as a static condition but as an evolving phenomenon shaped by emergence, uncertainty and imagination.

Artists in Residence Across Scientific Disciplines

Four practitioners have been selected to pursue research residencies at prominent scientific institutions. Tania Candiani's fellowship encompasses the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, PRBB and ICM-CSIC, where she investigates memory, emergence and knowledge transmission across cultural and scientific domains. Her contribution includes an activation of the installation HUM alongside the performance Physics for an Imaginary Storm.

Flamenco artist Israel Galván collaborates with PRBB researchers to examine movement, ageing and creativity through scientific methodologies. He reflects that the experience generated 'entirely new questions' about embodiment and performance practice.

The collective Estampa works with ICM-CSIC marine researchers, exploring how data, signals and indirect observation make invisible phenomena visible. Meanwhile, George Mahashe at IFAE investigates cosmology and quantum technologies, questioning conventional visual approaches to astronomical study with inquiries such as 'What kind of hiss does gravity make?'

Lydia Ourahmane joins as Platform Dalí's newest resident artist, undertaking research at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory into predictive biology and cellular self-organisation. Her practice emphasizes sustained engagement with communities and environments.

Open Call for 2027 Residencies

Applications are now open for the 2027 residency programme, offering artists twelve months of fully funded research and development. Participants will spend up to 45 days embedded within one of five partner institutions: Barcelona Supercomputing Center, ICFO–The Institute of Photonic Sciences, Institute of Marine Sciences, Institute for High Energy Physics, or Barcelona Biomedical Research Park.

The programme welcomes artists new to scientific contexts, prioritising openness and collaborative learning. Following the research phase, residents will develop new artworks for presentation in a major 2029 exhibition. Applications close on 7 September 2026.

Physical Space and Future Programming

The launch coincides with the opening of Espai Platform Dalí in Barcelona, which currently houses an exhibition of resident works ahead of its broader public programme scheduled for autumn 2026. This physical hub represents a significant step in creating sustained infrastructure for art-science collaboration.

Director Mónica Bello describes the initiative as investigating 'how art and science construct, interpret and mediate reality, exploring invisible forces, unexpected phenomena and the boundaries between illusion, simulation and the hyperreal.'

The convergence of artistic and scientific methodologies offers fertile ground for examining contemporary questions about perception, knowledge and representation in an age of accelerating technological change.