In collaboration with the American company Intuitive Machines, creator of a robotic lunar lander, works by Jeff Koons will soon be sent to the Moon.
Nova-C, developed in collaboration with NASA, will carry the artist’s sculptures, in addition to its payload. The flight is scheduled to take place before the end of 2022.
Art and high technology
It was in 2019 that NASA decided to call on three private companies to design robotic lunar landers. This step is essential for the realization of the Artemis program. The latter plans to return a crew to the Moon by 2025.
American artist Jeff Koons is known for his neo-pop style porcelain, ceramic and steel sculptures. The visual artist’s works will be enclosed in a transparent cube of approximately 15 cm³. No other details have been revealed so far. Intuitive Machines however indicates that a camera attached to the lander will make it possible to visualize the “installation” of the cube as well as its contents.
However, Jeff Koons may not be the first artist “exposed” on lunar soil. Indeed, Astrobotic, a competing company, is trying to overtake Intuitive Machines, and a work by British artist Sacha Jafri could thus take its place.
A Belgian artist was exhibited on the Moon
Since the Apollo 15 program, a sculpture has already been present on the Moon. In 1971, a small aluminum sculpture representing an astronaut had already been deposited by Davis Scott, one of the crew members.
Fallen Astronaut is a work by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck. It is surmounted by a small commemorative plaque on which are inscribed the names of 14 American and Soviet space pioneers who died during the race to the Moon.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) indicates that a second work of art, Moon Museum, would potentially already be present on the lunar ground since Apollo 12. It would be a small ceramic plate. Its surface would contain the drawings of six American artists of the 60s, including Andy Warhol.
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Sources: The Verge, MoMA
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