The Hadron Collider is the largest machine ever built by humankind. It is also one of the most beautiful. A machine approximately 27 km in diameter, buried on the border between France and Switzerland, housed at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) – where the World Wide Web was created in 1989 – and whose main objective is to prove Peter Higgs's 'Higgs boson' theory. This is a particle conceived by the physicist in 1964; according to him, its discovery would explain the origin of the Universe. It later became known as the 'God particle'. When it was discovered in 2012, it raised more questions than it answered.

But what is the connection between a collider, a particle accelerator, and art? The collider, like a work of art, allows us to understand a little more about humanity. The former was created to accelerate atoms in order to cause head-on collisions between them and study the resulting effects; the latter was created to stimulate the neurotransmitters in the human brain. Whether by provoking a sense of strangeness in viewers through works or installations that unsettle them, or by forcing them to reflect on and question things they were not prepared to feel; or even through simple emotional catharsis via the aesthetic experience, in line with Aristotle's view.

The Artadentro collective has taken on this role of 'Collider', by stimulating regional artistic creation in the Algarve area with local artists, whilst also bringing in artists from other parts of the country, and at the same time seeking to engage and involve the public in cultural processes.

Susana Rodrigues, 2023