The artwork ›Black Hole Sun‹ at MPL (@MPL, Max Rinke)

Science meets art: Prof Vahid Sandoghdar, Dr Dorothe Burggraf, Johannes Brunner, Prof Gerd Leuchs, Thomas Riedelsheimer, Raimund Ritz, Dr Andreas Dorsel, Prof Florian Marquardt (@MPL, Susanne Viezens)

A rather unusual project for the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light was presented to the public on Thursday evening. The experimenters, in this case not physicists but the artist duo Brunner/Ritz, presented their work, created especially for the Institute, to the public for the first time at the "Black Hole Sun" vernissage.

Around 100 science and art enthusiasts, including representatives of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light's Board of Trustees, came together for an inspiring exchange on the subject of light. "Today, art and science come together in an inspiring interplay to enliven our senses. Creativity and the quest to understand the world and nature are attributes that unite art and research," said Managing Director Vahid Sandoghdar.

The artist duo Johannes Brunner and Raimund Ritz installed a spherical object with one half of its surface immersed in dense white and the other in extreme black. By rotating the object, the artists created a 'black hole' in the centre of the light-flooded foyer - a striking response to the architectural character of the institute. The artwork is part of Thomas Riedelsheimer's film project "Tracing Light", which explores the question "What is light?" from both a scientific and an artistic perspective. The film will be released this summer.