Space art

From the 1970s onwards, a few artists began to imagine works that would use space in order to exist or to travel. With Pierre Comte, Joseph McShane and Tom Van Sant, Jean-Marc Philippe is one of the pioneers of this movement, Space Art, to which the Galerie Alain Oudin devoted the exhibition “Space Art / Art Espace” in 1985.

From the Great Celestial Wheel (1975) to the KEO satellite (1994 - 2008), his projects combine the most advanced space technologies, public participation and an ethical reflection on the use of space: for him, space belongs to everyone or to no one, and a work visible to the whole of humanity cannot come into being without its consent. This was the purpose of the commission of experts he convened in 1986 at the Maison de l'UNESCO.

The Great Celestial Wheel1975 – 1989

Messages from Humankind to the Universe1986 – 1987

The Spheres of Mars1993 – 2003

KEO1994 – 2025

Listen

17 May 1984 — Méridiennes, France Culture
Japan and the presentation of the Celestial Wheel in Tokyo
1980s — Méridiennes, France Culture
The Great Celestial Wheel
7 June 1986 — Poussière d'étoiles, by Marie-Odile Monchicourt, France Inter
Launch of Messages from Humankind to the Universe
15 June 1986 — L'Oreille en coin, France Inter
Messages from Humankind to the Universe
19 June 1986 — Musicomania, by Françoise Malettra, France Culture
Messages from Humankind to the Universe
16 July 1986 — Adrénaline, by Jacques Pradel, France Inter
Messages from Humankind to the Universe
4 February 1987 — Magazine programme, France Culture
The transmission of the messages towards the galaxy (26 January 1987)
1987 — Poussière d'étoiles, by Marie-Odile Monchicourt, France Inter
Messages from Humankind to the Universe
25 May 1987 — Clair de nuit, France Culture
The Great Celestial Wheel and space art

Recordings © Radio France / INA and Radio suisse romande, made available for documentary purposes.

Writings

By Jean-Marc Philippe

The Celestial Wheel — L'Hippocampe, no. 2, April 1984, pp. 55-58.
Artistic Invention and its Metamorphosis — in Modernes et après : « Les Immatériaux », Paris, Autrement, 1985, pp. 173-182.
World Space Art Committee: Working Paper — Typewritten working paper (7 pages) submitted to the committee of experts convened on 3 November 1986 at the Maison de l'UNESCO, Paris.
When Art, Space and Dreams Meet… and When Reflection Becomes Necessary — Phréatique. Langage et création, no. 49, summer 1989, pp. 107-116.
From the Infinitely Small to the Infinitely Large: Matter / Memory / Interactivity / Cosmos — in Les Transinteractifs, proceedings of the conference of 4 and 5 November 1988 (Centre culturel canadien, Paris), “Déchiffrages” series edited by Frank Popper, pp. 82-87.
Space Art — in Raymond Daudel and Nicole Lemaire d'Agaggio (eds), La science et la métamorphose des arts, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 1994, pp. 141-160.
What if Exercising “Full Responsibility” Proved to Be Transdisciplinary in Nature, and if Ethical Reflection Should Henceforth Include Artistic Perception — Journal international de bioéthique, vol. 5, no. 1, March 1994, pp. 35-38.
Cultural Matrix and Artistic Creation: From the Classical Practice of One's Art to Transdisciplinarity — in Michel Cazenave and Basarab Nicolescu (eds), L'Homme, la science et la nature : regards transdisciplinaires, Aix-en-Provence, Le Mail, “Science et conscience” series, 1994, pp. 232-264.

On Jean-Marc Philippe

Portrait of the Artist on Video — Gilles Tordjman, “Portrait de l'artiste en vidéo”, Revue d'esthétique, no. 10 (“Vidéo-Vidéo”), Toulouse, Privat, 1986, pp. 155-158.

References and links

Books, catalogues and journals

Annick Bureaud, “L'art de l'ère spatiale”, Art Press, no. 269, June 2001.
Pierre Poix, Ils ont rêvé l'espace. De Plutarque au Space Art, Paris, Hatier, “Regard sur l'espace” series, 1992, chapter “Les maîtres du Space Art”, pp. 153-163.
Alain Oudin, “L'Art spatial”, Autrement, no. 77 (“L'Espace super star”), February 1986, pp. 196-197.
Roger F. Malina, “Space Art As Public Art: The Artist As Space Researcher”, Delicate Balance: Technics, Culture and Consequences, IEEE, October 1989, pp. 260-266 (DOI).
Roger F. Malina, “In Defense of Space Art: The Role of the Artist in Space Exploration”, International Astronomical Union Colloquium, vol. 112, January 1991, pp. 145-152.
Adrien Goetz, “Les yeux dans les étoiles”, Le Journal des Arts, no. 551, 1^st October 2003.
Sophie Bruère and François Gauvin, “Terre || Lumière”, Figures de l'Art, no. 17, 2009, pp. 226-227 (DOI).