Liquid Cosmos

For the last week of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, the Lithuanian Space Agency’s (LSA) exhibition will present a group of artworks specially created to respond to the pavilion’s central project, Planet of People by Julijonas Urbonas, the LSA’s founder, artist and researcher. This is a collaboration with the KOSMICA Institute and the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG).

In summer 2021, the KOSMICA Institute created a space laboratory with artists from the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG). In this laboratory they explored how artists have envisioned a myriad of models for exploring the universe in both critical and poetical ways. After a series of seminars and discussions with Nahum, artist and director of KOSMICA Institute, they have created a series of artworks to dialogue and expand on the projects presented at the pavilion, curated by Jan Boelen, artistic director of Atelier LUMA in France and rector of HfG.

The participating artists will present a selection of installations, interactive artworks and performances to create new imaginaries for the exploration of the cosmos and our relationship with it. This group of artists are stretching the possibilities of humans in space by envisioning cosmic portals, devising new extraterrestrial languages, queering our understanding of the universe and challenging our place in it. In the words of Nahum, ‘Today the role of art in space activities is crucial if we are going to be critical with our actions beyond our planetary home and to explore ways to be kind to the universe after having learned from our mistakes on Earth. Let’s remember that before space travel was possible, artists from different disciplines were already imagining humanity beyond Earth’s orbit. These cultural works inspired both scientists and engineers that made space travelling possible. Today, as the space sector grows, the role of imagination and creativity is even more important. Artists can directly contribute to shape the new technologies that will revolutionise space exploration.’

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Michael Bielicky
Éva Csonka
Juhee Han
Kimin Han
Anna-Lina Helsen
Iden Sungyoung Kim
Jungeun Lee
Christina Vinke
Alex Wenger

Encounter in the Dawn

By Michael Bielicky, Alex Wenger, Anna-Lina Helsen, Kimin Han & Christina Vinke

The installation Encounter in the Dawn consists of a portal into outer space to the neighbouring celestial body: Planet of the People. Using data fed from a satellite, astronauts are transported through the portal using sounds, sights and smells of space to another planet called Planet of the Elements, where the elements Fire, Water, Earth, Air and Ether are found. Influenced by the works of Arthur C. Clarke and John Horton Conway, the space portal uses extraterrestrial data from a satellite as the seed of true random life for these elements.

Grey zone: Spacial queerness (Performance- Lecture)

By Iden Sungyoung Kim

Our understanding of space is currently being challenged. The dualism between humans and space makes us confront the contemporary space missions that emanate from Earth, and challenge the political ignorance towards the terrestrial environment. The lecture-performance Spacial Queerness will serve as a political compass to propose a radical redefinition of this dualism. At the same time it will highlight the urgent need for our critical imagination about future politics, industry, society and human beings with the environment through the artist's poetic and precise narrative.

THE ZONE (Live Dance Performance)

By Éva Csonka
Dancers: Charlotte Virgile and Thomias Radin

Singing Voice: Magdalena Kuba Gromada

Sound Design: Tina Jander and Nic Eßer

By creating a space-like atmosphere with delayed time and weightless movements, a group of bodies will attempt to establish and identify themselves in this spacetime-continuum. The members of the audience, by their mere presence in this space-like atmosphere, will become a part of this "4-dimensional" image, and will freely participate actively or passively. The question raised in this "multimedia happening" is: "When humans are so drastically taken out of their normal environment and placed in a completely unknown terrain or situation, how much of our social conditioning and habitual programming will we retain and to what extent are we willing to allow new changes?"

According to Einstein's general theory of relativity, parallel worlds could exist. There could also be multiple versions of us. This performance invites the audience to observe and interactively participate in it. Are our limits only an illusion, what is "real" and how do we perceive it?

Grey zone: Orbital contact (Workshop)

By Iden Sungyoung Kim

Our ignorance of the environment is accelerating the current breakdown of ecology, solidarity and collective critique in society and politics. In this workshop, participants are expected to draw an orbit with each other through their own soundwaves and hands to create a collective spatial environment. This activity is designed to allow each participant to access their individual universe and perceive their environment through the signs of other universes through their bodies.

Another

By Juhee Han
Programme implementation : Seonghyeon Lee

"Man is by nature a social animal." Aristotle.
How will we communicate with each other and with other creatures across the cosmos? This project is about creating a new language that can be used outside of our planetary home. Through a crowd-sourcing initiative, we have developed a language and message for extraterrestrial communication.

Metamorphic Symbiosis

By Jungeun Lee

Metamorphic Symbiosis visualises the microcosmic worlds of the ecosphere and creatures into social VR spaces. Through this work we will be able to reconsider the relations between the real and the virtual, the organic and the artificial, the human and the "more-than-human".

About the Lithuanian Space Agency

The Lithuanian Space Agency, founded by Julijonas Urbonas - artist, designer, researcher and engineer - is an organisation that researches space architecture and gravitational aesthetics. The LSA acknowledges the radical otherworldliness of the cosmos and aims to redefine what the extremes of living experience and imagination are. The agency focuses on exploring what the roles of architecture, design and art can be in the new space age, both globally and in the context of Lithuania.

About HfG

The Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG) is a state art college founded in 1992 in Karlsruhe. It focuses on media art, communication design , product design , exhibition design and scenography, art research and media philosophy with a strong interdisciplinarity between the departments.