Mars Colonisation, Interplanetary Utopia Exhibition Opens in Esch-sur-Alzette

On Thursday 6 October 2022, the Esch-Mars project developed within the framework of the Esch2022 - European Capital of Culture programme was presented to members of the press in the form of an exhibition titled "New Minnet", which addresses the subject of the colonisation of Mars and societal utopias.

The Esch-Mars project was developed over several phases, led by artists Sandy Flinto, Pierrick Grobéty and Daniel Marinangeli from the French-Luxembourgish company Eddi van Tsui, which included scientific meetings in Phase 1 (November 2021 - January 2022), citizen's debates in Phase 2 (February 2022 - March 2022) and the artistic creation in Phase 3 (May 2022 - August 2022). All this led to the New Minett exhibition, a contemporary art exhibition on the colonisation of Mars and societal utopias.

Speaking to Chronicle.lu regarding the origins and motivation behind the exhibition, Ms Flinto explained that when the conceptualisation started a year ago and since the project was part of the Esch2022 project, "it was important that it has something to do with the territory and Esch has an industrial territory in the past, and now with over 70 enterprises in Luxembourg exploring space resources, it was interesting for us to ask questions about the society, as the society [itself] changes a lot with industrialisation". She underlined that only the United States and Luxembourg have a Space Treaty to exploit space resources and with the concept of space colonisation, and so it was interesting for them to understand questions like: "Why we go to Space? What are the motivations to go into space?". She argued that in addition to military, research and economic reasons, climate change could be a possibility and colonisation of Mars as a "Planet B", but then: "With which attitude do we go there? How do we do this?".

With these questions in mind, the artists first reached out to experts from different fields such as literature, robotics, computer science, aeronautical equipment manufacturing companies and research laboratories in Phase 1, which included geographers, political scientists, philosophers, astrophysicists and microbiologists. In Phase 2, the artists reached out to citizens including schoolchildren to ask if it was a good idea to go into space and create a new utopian society, amongst many other questions, to understand what the population wanted for their future. The discussions also raised questions on ethical, ecological, social, economic and legislative aspects as well as questions about the individual and collective identity of the interplanetary utopias.

The team then invited six artists, namely Justine Blau, Ezio D'Agostino, Raphaël Patout, Julie Schroell, Bénédicte Vallet and Désirée Wickler, to read and listen to the results of the two previous phases and carry out their own research to prepare their creations. The artistic creation in Phase 3 was structured around three residencies: a scenography residency from 20 to 29 April 2022 with Anouk Schiltz, an artist's residency I in the kulturfabrik cultural centre in Esch-sur-Alzette from 9 to 13 May 2022 and an artist's residency II in L'Arche in Villerupt, France from 21 to 24 June 2022.

The exhibition, spread over two floors, has about 100 exhibits, including photos, various reproductions, audio-visual creations and sculptures, made up of scientific and historical elements.

The exhibition (in French, text translation in other languages available) opens to the public on Saturday 8 October and runs until Sunday 11 December 2022 at Esch Art Gallery (Konschthal Esch) at 29-33 Boulevard Prince Henri, L-4280 Esch-sur-Alzette. It will be open from 11:00 to 20:00 every Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, and from 11:00 to 18:00 every Wednesday and Friday (closed on Mondays and Tuesdays).

Further details on the Esch-Mars project is available online via: https://www.esch-mars.com/.