Physicist who talks to artists —
and sometimes the other way around.
Available for talks & conversations
Art & Science essays 50+
Article views ~1M
Proposed talk
Available Formats
- 45-minute Keynote + Q&A — Illustrated, conversational, and accessible to a broad audience.
- In Conversation / Dialogue — Joint session with a curator, artist, or moderator.
- Private Salon — Intimate format designed for smaller groups and executive roundtables.
We will create a new world. We have no choice. But how do we build the business plan?
The future is both daunting and exhilarating. We all know that, with energy revolution, the 20th century changed the world like never before—yet today’s coming world will not be a simple continuation of the past. From local communities to global systems, we are acutely aware of the severe constraints and threats ahead. To face these global shifts, organizations and businesses will continue to structure human activity at every scale.
This talk builds on three core principles:
- Although major global threats strictly constrain our future, it remains unwritten—the world is ours to shape.
- Our collective expertise is extraordinary: it will be our toolbox, our ressource.
- I have no predefined blueprint for how we will achieve this—and I know I am not alone.
Where to look for real-world inspiration? Artists ? Seriously ?
Who has been present for centuries, creating through even the darkest eras, while continually inspiring humanity? Artists are undeniably at the top of that list. Finding definitive solutions is not an artist’s job—and yet they keep telling us :
The true nature of the world is its open-endedness.
Uncertainty is the rule.
Improvisation is the path forward.
Using my background in physics as a bridge to the art world, I have been struck by how deeply prominent artists reject siloed thinking. Their work compels us to step back, rethink who we are, and actively engage in creating what comes next.
Great artists are inherently revolutionary. In a world of perpetual change, they offer vital lessons:
- Open-endedness is fundamental: uncertainty is the rule, and improvisation is the way forward.
- Mastery precedes freedom: as jazz musicians remind us, “You cannot improvise until you know your craft inside out.”
A Physicist and Renowned Artists: A Close Encounter
My scientific background turned out to be an unexpected doorway into meaningful dialogues with prominent artists. While art and science are fundamentally distinct, both wrestle with the same universal questions. These questions are at the heart of our life, but too often, within comfortable silos. That has been incredibly efficient but no longer serves us.
Surprising backlash, meeting artists sharply reminded me why I became a physicist in the first place: not to be boxed in. Illustration: electromagnetism transformed the world not through cautious planning, but through radical discovery. In business terms: to develop information technologies, the corporate trap is funding pigeon seeds because the ROI feels safe. True disruption means embracing Maxwell’s weird math to shift paradigms before the market forces us to. Consider Kodak, which invented digital display tech only to succumb to it. Italian sculptor Giuseppe Penone showed me artists go far beyond…
This talk draws from years of deep conversations—on the terrace of Pierre Soulages’ home in Sète, in Giuseppe Penone’s studio, alongside Fabienne Verdier, and across galleries worldwide—as well as the lived experience of standing before artworks that refuse simple explanation.
When a physicist walks into a gallery.
It is not to explain art — but to be challenged by it. Over ten years and fifty essays, I have developed a singular practice: entering artworks through the questions that matter most to physics : time, matter, light, movement, gravity…
The result is neither traditional science communication nor academic art criticism. It is an authentic encounter between two ways of understanding the world, delivered with the directness of a scientist and the perpetual curiosity of an explorer.
Collaborations & Key References
- Pierre Soulages: Scientific curator for Noir, c’est noir ? (Fondation Gandur pour l’Art / EPFL Lausanne, 30,000 visitors). Extended dialogues at his home in Sète on the Outrenoirs and the Conques stained-glass windows.
- Giuseppe Penone: Collaboration around Essere Vento (featured in the Arte Povera 2025 exhibition at La Bourse du Commerce, Paris / Pinault Collection).
- Fabienne Verdier: Initiated an Art & Science residency at Université Grenoble Alpes (Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre et de l’Univers), driving interdisciplinary exchange between researchers and the artist.
- Adrianna Wallis: Contributed to the exhibition Il restera la gravité (Galerie Anne-Laure Buffard, Paris, 2026; featured in Beaux Arts Magazine, Elle, and ArtNews Paris). As noted on Arte Radio:“By weaving together intimate investigation, archives, and reflections with physicist Joël Chevrier, Adrianna Wallis sets back in motion a story long kept silent…”
Essays & Featured Artists
Pierre Soulages · Giuseppe Penone · Olafur Eliasson · Anish Kapoor · Tomás Saraceno · Iris van Herpen · Roman Opalka · Marina Abramović & Ulay · Fabienne Verdier · Yoann Bourgeois · Marcel Duchamp · Martyna Marciniak · Qingmei Yao · Richard Serra · César · Hiroshi Sugimoto. (Articles published in TheConversation.).
A physicist meets artists : others examples
Book
A Physicist at the Museum (2023)
Published by Éditions l’Art-Dit. 250 pages. Physics as a way of reading art — not explaining it away, but opening it further. Available in French; English extracts on request. The book gathers articles published in The Conversation.
Background
Physics professor, Université Grenoble Alpes, since 1998
Scientific Director, UGA Design Factory
Postdoc: Cambridge, Jülich. Visiting professor: Purdue, Lisbon, Tsinghua-Shenzhen
Research: quantum mechanics, nanophysics, instrumentation
Languages
French Native
English Fluent for public speaking and professional contexts
Press & publications
Beaux Arts Magazine
Elle (France)
ArtNews Paris
The Conversation (Fr/En)
Centre Pompidou podcast
Interalia Magazine London
Prof. Joël Chevrier
joelchevrier.com
Grenoble · Paris · Available to travel to London
Inspiration
Pour qu’un artiste soit pertinent, il doit avoir une œuvre singulière et aborder des questions universelles. Jennifer Flay, d’après Pierre Nahon dans le Dictionnaire amoureux de l’art moderne et contemporain (2014)
“Si certains demandent à la science de théoriser l’art, je demanderai plutôt à l’art de m’aider à pratiquer la science.” Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond, dans « La science n’est pas l’art », Art et science, CNRS Éditions (2012)
Teaching, exploring, learning with students... 