Competing Cosmologies: Interpreting the Sky

The exhibition, co-curated by the Wende’s Curatorial Department and NASA historian Lois Rosson, explores the ways in which new discoveries in space exploration during and after the Cold War have inspired visual artists on a global scale. The exhibition shows how artists in the East, the West, and the Global South have responded to advanced space-related scientific and technological developments and discoveries, and how they connected these new insights with specific cultural tropes. Moreover, this exhibition claims that despite global political and ideological divisions, we all share a deep responsibility for our planet. The exhibition combines historical artifacts, including a full-scale model of Sputnik-1, an original Moon rock, and cosmos-themed sculptures, ceramics, posters, and board games, with Cold War-era and contemporary artwork inspired by and reflecting on the cosmos. Artists presented in the exhibition include Pyotr Belenok, Nuotama Bodomo, Chesley Bonestell, Chitra Ganesh, Lia Halloran, Jitish Kallat, Bill Mauldin, Yinka Shonibare, Andrei Sokolov, Victoria Vesna, and Eryn Zimmerman.