This year, the Institute Art Gender Nature IAGN at the HGK Basel and Atelier Mondial are bringing together students and international guest artists for the tenth time to create an experimental exhibition. Curated by Filipa Ramos, The Cat in the Box exhibition will take place at the same time as the IAGN's spring symposium Quantum Knowledge: States, Systems, Fictions (2-4 April), which is aligned with the UN International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. The Cat in the Box refers to the famous thought experiment by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961), in which the scientist imagined a cat in a box, along with a vial of poison gas and a radioactive atom. In the course of the experiment, the atom enters a paradoxical state of suspension between ‘decaying’ and ‘not decaying’, which triggers a chain reaction and must ultimately also affect the state of the cat: at some point, it too must be both alive and dead at the same time. Schrödinger thus showed that quantum knowledge is not there to predict the future, but to provide explanations for the world. In this, quantum science has the same function as myths: they offer plausible, but also strange and paradoxical possibilities to make sense of life.

The organisation Swiss Peace, the University of Applied Sciences and Arts and Atelier Mondial are jointly offering this further education course (CAS) in the field of Art & Peace. What role can the arts play in transforming conflicts and fostering peace? Further information about the course and the application process can be found here: https://www.fhnw.ch/en/continuing-education/art-and-design/cas-artandpeace