The Moon, new ZAD? The title, The Moon: an area of imaginary to defend , is deliberately provocative. “It is not simply an exhibition of this beautiful celestial body in the sky. There is an economic and political reality is very important,” says Geraldine Gomez, founder Hors Pistes festival. The Moon, the source of imagination, dreams and art, But also a territory to conquer. Fifty years after the words eternal of Neil Armstrong, the 14th edition of the Off-road, thus, takes on this year a bit of height for us to reflect on the conquest of this new space became an issue of geopolitical and scientific. Around the exhibition, conferences, screenings and performances “satellites” are organized throughout the festival.
Jambo of Cristina de Middel JAMBO
Who has never dreamed of, a night of the full moon, to go visit him? Glistening and pure, the satellite land is a dream for men. In 1638, Francis Godwin envisioned the reach with a chariot pulled by geese. In a projection, the artist Agnes Meyer-Brandis was inspired by the book of the English bishop and realizes the flying machine devised by the author. The artist Cristina de Middel makes it a tribute in his installation photo to the “Afronautes”. These Zambians in the 1960s, decided to mount a space program to send two cats, a wife and a missionary on the moon. The project will never see the day, through lack of means. It will have to wait for the 21st of July 1969 to see the “quantum leap for mankind” come true.
The art prompt on the Moon
An installation offers us a journey in time. Direction the 1970s in this show restored. In front of a leather sofa, a tv with cathode ray tubes broadcast footage, provided by Nasa, of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The artist David Guez invites here to relive -or to imagine – this July 21, 1969, followed by nearly 700 million viewers around the world. Next, the radio broadcasts stories of people who lived this historic day. “I remember that night as if time had not past. We were mesmerized in front of our first television, aware of attending an incredible event,” recalls Danielle.
It is related to the mission of Apollo 15. Paul Von Hoeydonck is present this evening for the opening of the exhibition. Little known to the general public, yet it is one of the few artists to have a work on the Moon. “Nasa wanted a non-flammable, non-magnetic, lightweight, and above all neutral,” says the belgian artist, 93-year-old. Its figure aluminum – the copy of which is exposed – will be placed on the lunar soil on the 2nd of August 1971 with a commemorative plaque bearing the names of the fourteen victims of space exploration.
The Moon has its memorial and also museum. Small, very small. The size of a SIM card. The ceramic piece brings together drawings from several artists. Among them, Robert Rauschenberg draws a line, Claes Oldenburg schematized Mickey Mouse and Andy Warhol transformed his initials into a penis. The small room will be decided in the greatest secrecy, the landing module of Apollo 12, in November 1969. If the Louvre does not have its place on the Moon, the art continues to invite them to participate. The next realization, also exhibited, is expected to reach our satellite by 2021. Small sculpture in the shape of a totem pole, MoonArk brings together six ensembles made up of disks, extremely fine. Some contain drops of every ocean, earth samples, or even pictures to be exchanged between the artist and his wife. “This is a condensed version of the state of our planet. An identity card of the land unit,” explains Jean-Luc Soret, curator at the Maison européenne de la photographie and close the project.
Small sculpture in the shape of a totem pole, MoonArk brings together six ensembles made up of disks, extremely fine. Moonark one of The disks extremely fine. Pierre Laporte The work Moonark Pierre Laporte Nod to the “yellow vests”
The Moon makes you dream artists, but also fantasize the States. The collective Planet laboratory offers a critical perspective on the conquest of space. A scheme reminiscent of how Nasa has employed former engineers nazis like Wernher von Braun, in charge of missiles V2. Or these researchers excluded under mccarthyism. “I didn’t know all this context, then, that I have in my home an original photograph of the Apollo 11 mission,” said Catherine came to visit the exhibition with her daughter. “This is to demystify the image of the conquest of american space,” explains Ewen Chardonnet, founder of the collective. It is important to understand that there are issues extremely political to get out of our look smug on the conquest of space.” The ecological issue is also exports in the space. “Companies like Space X begin to use kerosene for their launch and emit a lot of soot in the atmosphere,” remarked Ewen Chardonnet.
another mural presents us with upcoming projects on the lunar ground. Databases spatial, mining, militarised areas… “Five world powers are trying to decide the future of this star,” says the programmer Géraldine Gomez. More by documentation than by the artistic aspects, the exhibition questions the future of this common land, became an issue of major economic and, in fact, a new area to defend. Should we expect to see barricades and clouds of tear gas on the sea of Tranquility? The collective has designed a mock-up of a crater, where small characters appear with banners. “End of me, the beginning of the us”, “Stop Capitalism” can be read there. With a nod to the news, the figurines are dressed in yellow vests.
Festival Off-Piste: The moon: an Area of imaginary to defend at the Centre Pompidou. Place Georges Pompidou (IVe). Up to February 3, 2019. From 11h to 21h. Free admission.
