Ars Ad Astra
The 1st Art Exhibition in Earth Orbit
Video Mir Downlink with Thomas Reiter
".....and let me tell you that there are many things here on board which keep us alive, of course technical systems which produce oxygen to breathe, water to drink which clean the air from carbon dioxide, food and all these things which help to keep us alive, life support systems. But I can tell you that this kind of thing (he holds up an art work from ars ad astra) are a part of what is necessary to keep us alive, to keep the memory to the Earth, to our families, to our friends, to the nature."
EuroMir 95 crew member cosmonaut Thomas Reiter
On September 3, 1995, Ars ad Astra the first art exhibition in Earth orbit was launched to the Mir space station. The mission was organized under the auspices of the European Space Agency (ESA) in the context of the EUROMIR 95 mission. Artists from around the world were invited to submit artworks created around the theme "Space and Humanity", each measuring 21 x 30 cm and utilizing "space qualified" art materials.
20 original artworks and a digital archive of all of the submitted artworks were sent to the Mir space station.
The project was organized by the Swiss based O.U.R.S. Project, in cooperation with the European Space Agency for the first art exhibition to take place beyond Earth. Arthur Woods served as project manager and Marco C. Bernasconi served as technical director.
After holding an international competition, twenty original art works were selected by a jury of art and space experts for an exhibition on the Mir space station.
In addition, one artwork from each artist participating in the project was digitized and installed on a portable computer that accompanied German cosmonaut Thomas Reiter on the mission.
The theme of the exhibition was "Space and Humanity". The artists were challenged to make "space qualified" artworks that were lightweight and used no toxic materials. Each artwork was carried out on paper that measured 21 x 30 cm.
On space station Mir, the cosmonaut crew consisting of Thomas Reiter and his two Russian colleagues Sergeij Avdeev and Yuri Gidzenko picked the artwork they liked best from the twenty originals. This artwork, a watercolor by the American artist Elisabeth Carol Smith called "When Dreams are Born" was kept on the Mir station until just before it was de-orbited.
The remaining 19 artworks were returned to Earth on February 29, 1996. The winning artist received a special Omega Speedmaster Chronograph which was once flown on the Mir station donated by Omega SA. All twenty artists also received a set of "space qualified" acrylic artists paints donated by the Swiss art supplies manufacturer LASCAUX.
In October 1994 the project received the endorsement of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) which agreed to lend its name as the project's patron.
Artistic Description
"SPACE & HUMANITY"
Artists have been a part of space explorations since the very beginning. Their visions and visualizations helped to lead humanity to make the most important step in its history - the step beyond its home planet Earth.
The "Ars ad Astra" project was designed to open the door to space for a large number of artists and to integrate art into a space mission. This project - the "1st Art Exhibition in Earth Orbit" - required the artists to make space qualified artworks and it required interaction at different levels of the space community in order to make "space" available for the art works in the planning, in the mission and finally on the space station Mir.
As a "cultural experiment" the Ars ad Astra project investigated:
- if non-scientific projects such as Ars ad Astra would generate interest in space matters and create awareness of space benefits in the society at large
- if non-space artists would be attracted to participate in the project, and
- after more than 35 years of space activities which have created volumes of scientific data, images and expectations, how would the artists express their current understanding, vision, relation, etc, to space.
Within this context the purposes of the project were:
- to relate the promises and benefits of space to a large public,
- to stimulate and involve the artistic community in space activities, and
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to expand a cultural dimension within the highly technical and scientific space programs of the world.
The works were sent to the Mir space station and, except for the winning artwork by Betsy Smith, were returned to the artists after they were returned to Earth.
Publications about the Ars Ad Astra project:
- 1994 Arthur R. Woods & Marco C. Bernasconi, Ars ad Astra: The 1st Art Exhibition in Earth Orbit. Paper IAF-94-P. 3.320 presented at the 45th IAF Congress, Jerusalem, Israel. October 9-14.
- 1995 Arthur R. Woods, Ars ad Astra: A Cultural Experiment on EUROMIR 95, Paper IAA-95-IAA.8.2.04 presented at the 46th International Astronautical Congress, Oslo, Norway, October 2-6. Download PDF
ESA Press Releases:
Website: www.arsadastra.com