The product of an ambitious partnership with the Musée des arts et metiers, the exhibition Eppur si muove (And yet it turns) focuses on the many links that exist between the fields of the visual arts and technology, as well as the decisive influence that the history of the sciences and technology has exercised on contemporary artists. Filling all the Mudam Luxembourg’s exhibitions spaces, and in a spirit of dialogue, it brings together some seventy pieces dating from between the eighteenth century and the present day from the collections of the prestigious museum in Paris and about a hundred works by artists who through the questions that they engage with, the experiences they offer, and the manner of production and collaboration they employ, embrace the themes that have run through the domains of technology and science for several centuries. Opening with a representation of the emblematic pendulum built by Léon Foucault—”the first to physically demonstrate the spinning movement of the Earth,” in the words of artist Piotr Kowalski—the exhibition will be structured in three sections: Measuring the World, Matter Revealed, and Inventions Applied, each occupying a floor of the museum in several theme-based rooms. Questions tackled vary from celestial mechanics, descriptive geometry, the measurement of time and space, observation of the infinitely large and infinitely small, light, sound and electromagnetic waves, tools, energy, and cybernetics: each a facet of a world that man has always attempted to understand and mould. By means of the dialogue that it stimulates, the exhibition Eppur si muove also reassesses the dynamics common to both domains, which are often artificially distanced from one another. Freed of the conception of art being autonomous, the works bear out the importance to the creative process of technical and scientific research, collaboration, experimentation, and instrumentation. In parallel and aside from their undeniable physical beauty, the technical objects from the Musée des arts et metiers embody the dimension of intuition and creativity that goes hand-in-hand with all scientific research. This unique exhibition thus draws the contours of a “shared space” between artists and engineers, artists and scientists—a place where unique yet complementary gazes on the contemporary world intersect.                                                                    

List of artists
Dove Allouche / Darren Almond / Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil / Julien Berthier / Michael Beutler / Mel Bochner / Katinka Bock / Stanley Brouwn / Chris Burden / Nina Canell / Daniel Gustav Cramer  / Attila Csörgö / Björn Dahlem / Edith Dekyndt / Wim Delvoye / Ólafur Elíasson / Christoph Fink / Gego / Jochen Gerner / Marco Godinho / Paul Granjon / Grönlund-Nisunen / João Maria Gusmão + Pedro Paiva / Wade Guyton / Rebecca Horn / Éric van Hove / Ann Veronica Janssens / Véronique Joumard / Anne-Marie Jugnet & Alain Clairet / Rolf Julius / On Kawara / Paul Kirps / Piotr Kowalski / Sophie Krier / Alicja Kwade / Bertrand Lamarche / David Lamelas / Vincent Lamouroux / Katie Lewis / Jorge Macchi / Daria Martin / Kris Martin / Kazuko Miyamoto / Tatsuo Miyajima / Laurent Montaron / Gianni Motti / Carsten Nicolai / Navid Nurr / Lisa Oppenheim / Damián Ortega / Adrian Paci / Trevor Paglen / Nam June Paik / Miguel Palma / Panamarenko /  Michel Paysant / Amalia Pica / Julien Prévieux / Evariste Richer / Georges Rousse / Thomas Ruff / Stéphane Sautour / Lasse Schmidt Hansen / Conrad Shawcross / Simon Starling / Stelarc / Thomas Struth / Takis / Jean Tinguely / Francisco Tropa / Guido van der Werve / George Widener / John Wood & Paul Harrison/ / Raphaël Zarka

Partner of the exhibition
Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg, Fondation Loo & Lou, under the aegis of Fondation de Luxembourg, CFL – Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois

Partnership and exceptional supports:

Jean Tinguely, Fatamorgana, Méta-Harmonie IV, 1985
Project realised with the support of Goeres Horlogerie, Kneip, CBP Quilvest S.A., Pro Helvetia and
Edmond de Rothschild (Europe)
Particular thanks to SEM Urs Hammer, Swiss Ambassador in Luxembourg and to Monsieur Robert Goeres, director of Goeres Horlogerie

Paul Granjon, Guido the tour guide robot, 2015
Project developed in collaboration with Artem Alliance (Ecole Nationale Supérieur d’Art de Nancy,
ICN Business School Nancy-Metz, Mines Nancy) and Laboratoire Loria (CNRS Université de Lorraine-INRIA), under the leadership of Patrick Hénaff.
Production Mudam, Fondation Mines Nancy, Artem Entreprises, Le Grand Nancy, LORIA
Sponsored by KPMG Luxembourg 

Trevor Paglen, Prototype for a Nonfunctional Satellite (Design 4; Build 3), 2013
Project sponsored by SES

Project sponsored by POST Luxembourg

Michel Paysant, Nano-portraits de leurs Altesses Royales le Grand-Duc Henri
et la Grande-Duchesse Maria Teresa, 2014–15
Project realised with the support of Olympus Microscopie

With the support of Institut Français du Luxembourg

Press contacts
Mudam Luxembourg
Julie Jephos: j.jephos@mudam.lu / T +352 45 37 85 633

France
Agence Communication Culture 
Sylvia Beder: sylvia@sylviabeder.com / T +33 1 42 18 09 42

Germany
Artpress
Ute Weingarten: weingarten.artpress@uteweingarten.de / T +33 1 42 18 09 42