Neutrinos & Dark Matter is a long-term collaboration bringing together researchers from the Collaborative Research Center 1258 ‘Neutrinos and Dark Matter in Astro and Particle Physics’ at the Technical University of Munich, artists from the Academy of Fine Arts Munich (AdBK), and Haus der Kunst Munich. The project explores how contemporary art and fundamental physics can engage with shared questions about knowledge production, perception, and our relationship to the invisible dimensions of the universe.

At the heart of the project is the research of the Collaborative Research Centre 1258 “Neutrinos and Dark Matter in Astro- and Particle Physics” (SFB1258) at the Technical University of Munich, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Since 2017, the SFB1258 has been investigating some of the most fundamental questions in modern physics. Through exchanges between scientists, artists, and curators, these scientific investigations become a starting point for artistic inquiry, offering new perspectives on the cultural significance of fundamental research.

Developed in close collaboration with curator-led artistic initiatives and Haus der Kunst, the project creates opportunities for dialogue across disciplines and publics. Artists engage directly with research environments, theoretical concepts, experimental infrastructures, and data practices, while researchers reflect on their work through artistic methods and forms of representation.

The collaboration unfolds through seminars, lectures, workshops, and site visits to major international research facilities, including CERN, Switzerland, and the LNGS Gran Sasso National Underground Laboratory, Italy. These encounters provide a framework for exploring how scientific and artistic practices intersect, particularly in the ways they visualize, interpret, and communicate phenomena that remain beyond direct observation.

The program began in spring 2025 with the lecture series Physics & Art Mondays at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, followed by a a live presentation of Radio Amnion: Sonic Transmissions of Care in Oceanic Space by artist Jol Thoms at Haus der Kunst Munich as part of its monthly program Open Haus. Conceived as a long-term sound work for the Earth's waters, Radio Amnion broadcasts commissioned compositions by contemporary artists into the Pacific Ocean during every full moon. The project is closely linked to the Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment (P-ONE), a pioneering initiative to build a deep-sea neutrino observatory on the ocean floor off the coast of Canada and one of the flagship research projects of SFB 1258. As part of the celebrations marking 100 years of quantum physics in 2025, the collaboration was invited by the Bavarian Minister of Science and the Arts, Markus Blume, to present its initiative at a State Reception held at the Munich Residenz (pictured above).

The collaboration will culminate in a public presentation at Haus der Kunst in 2028, bringing artistic and scientific perspectives together to reflect on twelve years of research within the SFB 1258.