Art and science – two subjects which typically come head to head in any debate.  Whilst art searches for beauty in aesthetics, art for art’s sake, science looks for logical reasons and causes – some of which are less than beautiful.

Plaza de los Bandos

Said this, it is not unusual, in the world of Mathematics for example, to hear of the elegance of a theory, a proof or a pattern.  This “pure” beauty, though said by some to be found only in the abstract, is explored in Peter Ginter’s new exhibition in Salamanca. Bringing the contrasting worlds of science and art together, he explores the real life graft of scientists working at CERN on the Large Hadron Collider through stunning photographic imagery.

The LHC project is something which is very important to Spain – a fact established by their monetary contribution of no less than 60 million Euros in 2009! In fact in Spain there are over 1000 people working in astro-, nuclear- and particle-physics, spread out over 18 universities, 8 CSIC institutes and 3 public research organisations.

Work of Peter Ginter

Being so important to Spain, Peter Ginter’s work has pride of place in Plaza de los Bandos.  A prize-winner for photography, Ginter was born in 1958 and has worked with magazines such as Stern, Paris Match, Life and National Geographic.  His first visit CERN was in 1998, to photo-document work on accelerators, and it’s since become a job which has taken him all over the world – the United States, Spain, Russia and Pakistan to name just a few destinations!

A selection of his works

Peter Ginter

Going to see an exhibition is a great way  to enjoy the Salamanca sunshine, open your eyes to a little culture and meet like-minded people.  And if art really does interest you, then don’t hesitate in checking out our activity programme at the Mester Spanish school which includes, amongst many other things, conferences about art!