CURA.

French artist Laure Prouvost (b.1978, Croix) is drawn to indecipherable themes, particularly the blind spots and common miscommunication within the perception of art. Through a coherent proximity to language, Prouvost embraces the somewhat aloof, undisclosed sections: she seeks the unreachable notions that may exist within artworks but never comes across as clear in the dialogue between viewer and object. Immersive mixed-media installations traverse narrative levels, as she recognises and fractures confounding narratives, challenging the expected associations of words and imagery in favour of “free” imagination. Phrases, either written down or verbalised, vacate Prouvost’s film installations, whose rich storylines are the result of a personal and literary concoction, decoding the many faces of idioms and their cognitive impact.

We Felt A Star Dying compiles fragments from Prouvost’s first encounter with the paradoxical realm of quantum physics. The exhibition was originally presented by LAS Art Foundation at Berlin-based Kraftwerk in early 2025. This time, it’s housed in the industrial archaeological site of OGR Torino, the experimental branch of Fondazione CRT and a late 19th.century train repair workshop. Joining forces with philosopher Tobias Rees and scientist Hartmut Neven, Prouvost approaches reality – as we know it – from a quantum perspective. The research collaboration started roughly two years prior when Prouvost was granted access to a quantum computer, allowing them to capture quantum noise – the uncalculable fluctuations that arise when particles interact – and their effects on audiovisual media. Installations mirror these findings, unconventionally de- and recoding the principles that shape how we perceive and engage with the world.

This exhibition coincides with a year when quantum mechanics celebrates its centennial, tracing back to Werner Heisenberg’s pioneering formulation in 1925. During an extensive bout of hay fever, Heisenberg decided to relieve his symptoms on the pollen-free island of Helgoland, where he plotted down equations that later constituted the foundation of quantum mechanics. Quantum remains mysterious: it caters the smallest fragments of our particles but the world still wonders how to approach this phenomenon. Prouvost’s installations echo this confusion, harnessing and encouraging unconventional lanes of thought. They invite the coming generation of technology by showcasing how the yet uncharted quantum fosters extraordinary capabilities.

It all starts with The Beginning, a five-limb figure that moves frantically in tune with its own sensitivity. Prouvost mirrors the haptic waltz of quantum systems, going from deep variations in thermal core temperature to intermittent synchronies to better touch on its superpositional qualities. Mounted from the ceiling are sculptures named Cute Bits, a wordplay on quantum bits or qubits: a materialised interpretation of the basic units of quantum information, used to encode data in quantum computing. Whenever the sculptures move, a soft layer of warmth flashes through prisms of light, mimicking quantum entanglement. If two particles have once entangled, they will inform each other even in case of separation, making a case for a non-classical system. Amid cosmic rays and magnetic fields, visitors can immerse themselves in the synchronicity and disintegration as individual units become two, losing their distinct “identities” in the process.

Towards the end, We Felt a Star Dying is projected overhead, a video consisting of experimental footage sourced from microscopes, drones and thermal cameras, later processed by a quantum computer – subliminally shaping both dissolution and rebirth. It is a play of sensory input, not feeding the brain with prior knowledge or pre-installed references, but suggesting new sides of the world beyond the mind. While unconscious bias remains present, awareness is steered towards a new concept with no answers, which to many doubles as uncanny. It is a timely exhibition, presented at a moment when narratives are shrinking and premises of originality seem harder to come across. There is something fresh there – quantum hints at an infinite source of power and provocation, ideas that Prouvost’s findings also suggest.