The view from the Moon – a journey into the unknown
The Moon landing on 20 July 1969 gripped audiences around the world and delivered the first-ever images of the Earth from space. Some of the artists in our exhibition were euphoric, and responded by producing heroic images that symbolized the faith in technology and progress prevalent at the time. Others identified a threat to humanity. Seen from a distance of 384,000 km the Blue Planet appears small and vulnerable – in stark contrast to the opportunistic egos of its inhabitants.
Curator Cathérine Hug has conceived an exhibition that skilfully explores these tensions. Visitors will encounter star charts, romanticized paintings, the propaganda of rival political systems during the Cold War, documentary photographs and fictional film clips.
The exhibition starts in the Romantic era and focuses on the post-war period. Themes such as topography, moonlight and the Moon’s shadow, the Moon as mass media phenomenon and zero gravity link historical facts to legends and subjective creations.
You’ll make your way through installations in an associative learning experience that explores the many ways in which artists have engaged with the Moon and its relationship to our planet. A number of them hold up a mirror to the denizens of the Earth.