A bridge is built to link two points that were previously separate or isolated from each other. In order to establish new bridges of knowledge, the program Bridges to the unknown - crossing art with science will intersect the two major areas of activity at the Champalimaud Foundation – scientific research and healthcare – with artistic research and creation. The aim of this initiative is to involve society at large in this transdisciplinary dialogue, promoting access to knowledge.

At Bridges to the unknown, we view art as a field of knowledge, a way of producing experiences and diverse ways of understanding and making worlds. In many ways, science shares these same goals, though it normally employs different methods, languages and presents different results. By bringing these two areas of knowledge into dialogue, we aim to create a space to share questions and foster experimentation. The interplay of perspectives, through moments of concepts and practice displacements, holds the potential to unfold and broaden our understanding of our experiences within the world.

The first steps of the program began in September 2021, by launching the first edition of the art-science residency programme. Invited artists work in synergy with researchers and health care professionals from the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown. The process of interdisciplinary research and the resulting co-creation from the residencies is then shared with the public through on-site activities.

Bridges to the unknown is an initiative that invites the various communities – internal, local, national and international – to inhabit the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown and to create an atmosphere of knowledge exchange and curiosity stimulation. 

Through this initiative, the Champalimaud Foundation seeks to assert and consolidate its interest in promoting cultural and intellectual diversity, and fostering the co-construction of a better future.

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