Art & Research

Making Research Visible

A collaboration between artist Fred Van de Walle and researchers, lecturers, and students at Swiss and Belgian universities — translating scientific innovation into publicly accessible visual experience.

The Proposition

Fred Van de Walle is an artist based in Zürich with a background in materials science and conservation. He works with Metal Particle Painting — a technique in which brass, bronze, steel, and copper particles are applied to painted surfaces using custom metal brushes. The resulting works shift with light, oxidise over time, and accumulate meaning the way research does. They do not illustrate scientific content — they enact the same processes: transformation, system behaviour, material under pressure, the trace of time.

The collaboration is concrete. You bring the research. Fred brings the method. Together — with your students if you choose — you identify what is essential in what you are doing and find a material equivalent for it. The result is an exhibition: at your university, or in a public-facing venue.

An Example — Rise and Fall

The Rise and Fall series, developed during a residency in Hainan, China in 2026, explores civilisations as layered systems rather than linear histories. Through a sequence of planetary forms, the series traces emergence, expansion, decline, and integration. Each form appears unified, yet is shaped by underlying structures — constructed, repeated, and therefore fragile.

Materials carry the argument. Brass, bronze, and steel embed different temporal states within the same surface. Small human figures inhabit each form — suggesting that we exist simultaneously within multiple temporal layers, shaped by what came before and contributing to what follows. Time here is not a sequence of events but a condition of accumulation.

This is the logic that connects the practice to scientific thinking. The question for each collaboration is: what is the material equivalent of your research?

How it Works

1. Initial session — 2 hours, on-site
An exchange of research topics, identification of key ideas, and definition of a visual direction. No artistic background required. The session is a conversation between your expertise and Fred's material knowledge.

2. Development phase — 2 to 4 weeks
Fred creates the artwork or series. Participants — researchers and students — contribute input and context throughout. One or two short online follow-ups keep the work connected to the research as it develops.

3. Outcome — exhibition
A focused exhibition or presentation at your university or in a public-facing venue. Full documentation is provided. The emphasis is on maximum visibility for the research and the institution.

4. Future potential
Each project can be repeated, expanded, or developed into a longer programme. The first project establishes the working relationship and proves the model.

What You Gain

A genuinely new approach to science communication — not a simplification of your research but a translation of it into a form that reaches people who would never encounter it otherwise. Public visibility through exhibition and documentation. An interdisciplinary output directly useful for funding applications, annual reports, and institutional communication. Engagement for your students in a working creative process. A tangible, lasting result: artwork that exists beyond the project.

What is Needed

Researchers, lecturers, or students with an interest in making their work visible beyond the institution. Access to ongoing research or innovation content. A modest production and display budget — typically a few hundred Swiss francs per project, fundable through science communication or outreach budgets.

Timeline

Projects begin in September, aligned with the academic year. Each project runs for a few weeks. Multiple collaborations can run in parallel with different research groups or departments.

Get in Touch

If you are a researcher, lecturer, or student at a Swiss or Belgian university and want to explore a collaboration, send a brief message describing your research area and what you would like to make visible. Fred responds personally to all enquiries.

Fred Van de Walle
Zürich, Switzerland
frederickvdw@gmail.com
@fred_van_de_walle