Artists in Residence at ISTA

The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) welcomes two new residents for the third round of its Artist in Residence Program. New Zealand-born, Los Angeles-based artist Fiona Connor and Iranian-Austrian sculptor Sara Ghalandari join the campus community from April to June 2025. Based on an exchange of ideas with ISTA researchers, they will develop new works to be presented at the opening festival of the new VISTA Science Experience Centre on 2 to 5 October 2025.

Fiona Connor

“Vital, recurring concerns in my artistic practice include the social and psychological life of the object, the politics of camouflage and mimesis, and the ethics and aesthetics of the built environment. I am attracted to sculptural propositions that ask: How is the artwork produced, distributed, interpreted, and received? How does one recognize the incumbent web of social relations and labor that support artistic production? What does it mean when such a process is obscured, or at worst obliterated, by its product or representation?

In my work I look for collaborative activities, and I do this at ISTA as well. I have started a series of conversations with ISTA scientists from different disciplines in which I explore their ideas and approaches to observation. Observation is a common ground of art and science, yet it is anything but easy to grasp. During the conversations, the scientists are given a black pen and paper and asked to draw diagrams with their answers. My questions are, for instance, what does an observation look like? Or, how does an object affect the observer? We will gather not only on the campus in Klosterneuburg, but also visit art exhibitions. My plan is to present a summary of my collected impressions and reflections on this as an analogue slide show and lecture performance at the opening festival in October.”

Sara Ghalandari

“I explore how humans perceive and relate to space—through movement, material, and interaction with physical forces. My installations invite the viewer to step into dynamic, evolving environments where the body and its surroundings enter a dialogue.

ISTA offers a rare opportunity to bridge scientific thought and artistic inquiry. Working with the Cremer Group, I encountered the collective intelligence of ant colonies—a decentralized system where no single entity controls the whole, yet complexity emerges from local signals, simple rules, and constant feedback.

This experience shifted my understanding of form, authorship, and material agency. It raised a question central to my current practice: If natural systems generate structure through emergence, can artistic form arise the same way?

At ISTA, I am developing a new sculptural work made of boning wire—lightweight, flexible, and responsive. The piece will grow from repeated modules that interact with each other and their environment. There is no fixed final form—just the unfolding of structure through internal logic and external conditions. This is not a metaphorical engagement with science, but an attempt to build form from within, using scientific principles as structural foundations for an artistic process.”

Click here for more information about the Artists in Residence program at ISTA.