February 21, 2024
3 Min read
The sculptures on the point of landing on the moon join a long lunar art story
A Lunar Landder nicknamed Odie wears 125 small moon sculptures by artist Jeff Koons who could become the first work of art authorized on the Moon
Close-up of a commemorative plaque on the moon on the Hadley-Apennine site, honoring 14 died astronauts from NASA and cosmonauts of the USSR. Astronauts David R. Scott and James B. Irwin installed it during the lunar surface activity of Apollo 15. The figurine symbolizes the fallen space explorers.
If everything goes well, the robotic population of the moon will increase by one on February 22 with the planned touch of the landing funded by NASA, nicknamed Odie. Among his cargoes are 125 miniature sculptures of the moon that their creator, the artist Jeff Koons, presented “the first work of art authorized on the Moon”.
Launched on February 15, Odie was built by the company based in Houston intuitive machines. It transports six NASA instruments, as well as a multitude of useful commercial charges, including Koons moons. Each incumbent moon directed towards the lunar surface has two counterparts who will remain on earth: a larger statue and a digital version in the form of a non -supplier token, or NFT.
“Authorized” is an important word when invoicing sculpture as a “first” on the moon. Even if the landing of intuitive machines is going well, Koons’ sculptures will probably not be the first art to approach our nearest companion in space – although the question is surprisingly slippery.
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The main competitor of the first art on the Moon would have tackled in 1969 on the lunar module of the Apollo mission 12. Nicknamed the “Moon Museum”, the piece was a drawing of tampon size tiles by six leading artists of the time, including Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg. Although the coalition asked NASA to approve the effort, it did not receive an answer.
“At the time, the concept of putting art on the Moon was an avant-garde idea for the NASA administrator,” said Carolyn Russo, art conservative to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC “They tried to obtain an official authorization and they could not do it.”
And so they have become thugs. Alert to NASA engineer slipped the tile on the leg of the lunar module, under the brilliant layers of gold from the insulation, before the mission takes off. However, there is no photo of the Moon Museum in place; The only way to make sure the tile did it would be to visit the pre-publishing of the landing on the moon. (There are also copies that remain on earth, including one outfit by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.)
“Now, I know that there is a moving work of art up there – software among all this hardware and waste,” said the artist Forrest Myers, who directed the effort, to the New York Times In an article published on November 22, 1969, when the project was made public.
Russo maintains that the Moon Museum, assuming that it has reached its destination, is the only real art on the Moon. She says that in her opinion, to qualify, projects must be intentionally called as art in the ends of art. In his opinion, that would disqualify another article from the Apollore era, a small aluminum statue which has become “fallen astronaut”.
This statue was designed by artist Paul Van Hoeydonck and placed on the surface of the moon by Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott in 1971, accompanied by a plate listing 14 American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts died in the quest to reach space. Scott said he considered the statue as a tribute to the colleagues, although Van Hoeydonck has since declared that he had approached the work of art.
And just as the roots of art on the moon date back to the first days of lunar exploration, Koons is not the only one to transform his artistic vision to our nearest neighbor.
The intuitive mission of the machines arrives on the heels of another attempt to land on the American commercial moon, a spaceship called Peregrine which failed to reach the moon in January. This Lander wore an art plaque by the British artist Sacha Jafri as well as a small sculpture nicknamed Moonark, created by a great collaboration led by Carnegie Mellon University, which contained images, poems, music and other materials.
“Humanity has always been expressed through art, and the moon has been used as inspiration since the start of time,” explains Russo. “Why would artists not consider the moon as a new place to offer a new cultural understanding of who we are as a civilization?”
