Umetniška zbirka MoonGallery z “idejami, ki jih je vredno poslati na Luno”, poletela v vesolje 

Svetovna umetnost se vse boj eksplicitno spogleduje s potovanjem v vesolje: čisto konkretno, kar smo v Sloveniji preko Moskve in njihovega raketnega centra že doživeli (npr. z Draganom Živadinovim, ki že sanja o potovanju preko Lune na Mars). Na drugi strani, v ZDA, pa se je pravkar zgodil nekakšen soroden dogodek, ki je potekal v raketnem oporišču in čigar naloga je bila poslati umetniško zbirko MoonGallery z “idejami, ki ji je vredno poslati na Luno,” v vesolje z dobesedno izstrelitvijo posebej za to priložnost dodatno pripravljene in opremljene vesoljske rakete. Sicer pa je o popotniku, ki je šel skozi atomski vek že zdavnaj sanjal pesnik Matej Bor, ki ga žal danes ne omenja nihče več. V MoonGallery je s svojima deloma zastopana tudi slovenska multimedijska umetnica Eva Petrič, pri enem sodeluje še Mateja Š. Dimic.

Nalaganje sicer miniaturnih umetnin v raketo

Ameriški vesoljski umetniški dogodek se je odvijal na Nasinem vzletišču na otoku Wallops v Virginiji.

Ameriška predstavitev umetnine Eve Petrič

Eva Petrić in Mateja Š. Dimic

Earthling Tattoo Seal, ujet v kocki iz pleksi stekla velikosti enega kubičnega centimetra in DBE Message from Earth, dišeča glinena kocka (v sodelovanju z Matejo Š. Dimic), bosta poleteli oziroma že letita na mejo človekovega habitata, na Mednarodno vesoljsko postajo, z Nanoracks na krovu rakete Antares v okviru misije oskrbe Northrop Grumman Cygnus NG-17.

Earthling Tattoo Seal in DBE Message from Earth sta vstavljeni v mrežo celic MoonGallery 8×8 velikosti enega kubičnega centimetra, v kateri je 64 umetniških artefaktov. Ta dogodek zaznamuje zgodovinski stik MoonGallery, katere del sta tudi  Earthling Tattoo Seal in DBE Message from Earth, z vesoljem.

 

MoonGallery (8 x 8) pripravljena za polet v vesolje, foto Moon Gallery Foundation

Bernard Foing, predsednik MoonGallery Foundation in Lunex Lunar Explorers, pravi: “Doseganje nizke zemejske orbite na naši poti do Lune je prvi korak pri razširitvi našega kulturnega dialoga v vesolje.”

Prihod rakete Antares na vzletišče

“Za to misijo smo izbrali umetniška dela, ki nosijo pomembne vrednote za človeštvo, ne le na tej točki na Zemlji, ampak tudi za prihodnjo več – planetarno družbo. Končna umetniška dela, ki bodo razstavljena na Mednarodni vesoljski postaji, bodo “pionirji” MoonGallery: naša prva dela, ki bodo odpotovala v vesolje in tja ponesla naše vrednote,” sta izjavili Anna in Elisaveta iz kuratorskega teama MonnGallery.

Priprave na polet

MoonGallery, prva umetniška galerija v vesolju, bo ostala na ISS (Mednarodni vesoljski postaji) šest mesecev, na Zemljo pa bodo po vsej verjetnosti prihajale tudi avtomatsko posnete fotografije.

Notranjost raketnega hangarja

Odštevanje minut

Earthling Tattoo Seal

Umetnost v vesolju

Umetnica Eva Petrič pa še na tleh

Raketa je prehitra

Zadnji pogled za njo

O dogodku je pisal James Barres v The New York Timesu.

Eva Petric creates site-specific artworks and oversees their installation. She was on hand with the technicians and the riggers when “Collective Heart,” a translucent work made of lace, was hung over the high altar at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan several years ago.

She cannot supervise the installation of two of her latest works. For now, anyway, she cannot go where they are going, even though they are going only about 250 miles, roughly the distance from Times Square to Rochester, N.Y.

They are heading to the International Space Station, as a prelude to establishing an art gallery in an even more distant place: the moon.

The Moon Gallery Foundation, a nonprofit that says its partners include the European Space Agency, will announce plans for the mission to the space station and the lunar gallery today in Manhattan. “Reaching low Earth orbit on our way to the moon is the first step in extending our cultural dialogue to space,” Bernard Foing, the chairman of the foundation, said in a statement. He was the lead project scientist of the European agency’s first moon mission, a satellite that orbited the moon in 2003.

The foundation said the gallery, a collection of 65 works, would be launched on Saturday on a rocket bound for the space station. The foundation said it was collaborating with Nanoracks, a company that arranges for experiments to fly to the space station. NASA’s description of the mission said another part of the Moon Gallery would be photographs and videos from a new camera that could be used on future space platforms.

There are space constraints in space, so the artist had to think small — each compartment in the grid-like rack being sent to the space station is slightly more than a half-inch wide and a half-inch tall. Petric, who divides her time between New York, Vienna and the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, said she was happy to bid her two tiny works goodbye, though she said she regretted that she could not be on the space station when they arrived.

Slovenski veleposlanik Tone Kajzer med nagovorom ob predstavitvi umetniške vesoljske misije v Washingtonu

Marijan Zlobec