Visitors at the exhibition “Cosmos Archaeology: Exploration in Time and Space”.
Elisa Tirabassi
As Switzerland and China mark 75 years of diplomatic relations with a year of joint cultural and tourism events, Beijing is hosting an exhibition that celebrates the meeting of science and art. Thanks to the combined expertise of the two countries, data about the universe is transformed into tangible works of art.
Imagine navigating through ten billion light years with the mere swipe of a finger; confronting the dense, tangled web of space debris now circling the Earth; listening to the music made from data collected by satellites orbiting in space.
All this is possible at Cosmos Archaeology: Exploration in Time and Space, an exhibition jointly organised by Switzerland and China, now showing at the National Museum of China in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.
The exhibition is the fruit of cooperation with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), and supported by the Department of Astronomy and the Academy of Arts and Design of Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University.
Cosmic data becomes tangible art
Visitors are immediately catapulted into an interactive and immersive journey through the history of the universe. The celestial bodies are like fossils that preserve data about the universe from the very time when they were formed.
Cosmic archaeology is the practice of observing and studying these “relics” – the oldest celestial objects and structures – to trace the history of cosmic evolution and create a “chronicle” of the universe.
“And it starts by taking abstract data sets and making them visible and offering new eyes or new objects on the cosmos,” explains Sarah Kenderdine, the exhibition’s curator. A professor at EPFL, she is internationally recognised for her pioneering work in the field of computational museology, which unites artificial intelligence with scientific data.
At the heart of it all, Kenderdine says, is this ancient and fascinating idea of mapping the universe, using different instruments to chart the stars. Over the millennia, a huge amount of information and knowledge has been built up. “This data is extremely abstract and difficult to look at. And what this exhibition does is make it tangible for people to explore for themselves,” the specialist adds.
Detail of planets in the star mapping sculpture by Swiss artist Pascal Bettex.
Elisa Tirabassi
The exhibition comprises eight displays grouped into four sections: “Instruments and Technologies – Mapping the Cosmos”, “The Starry Sky of Big Data”, “Sustainable Space” and “The Future – Interstellar Journeys”. Visitors can roam between interactive digital installations, kinetic sculptures and works of speculative design.
On opening day, the visitors were filled with wonder and enthusiasm. “You can touch the remote control and see how each country produced space debris at a given time,” exclaimed Zhang, who works in the museum sector.
Meanwhile Wei, a lawyer, was impressed at how the exhibition managed to translate remnants from the past into modern language. “Art, history and astronomy all come together. We feel very inspired after coming here: we’ll come back with the kids!”
Key Chinese contribution
The exhibition started out three years ago at the EPFL. From there it travelled to China, first to the Shanghai Astronomy Museum, then to the Guangdong Science Centre, and now it is being shown, for the fourth time, in Beijing.
According to the curator Kenderdine, China’s input into the exhibition has been key. While Westerners take a more didactic approach, the Chinese one is more poetic, she says.
“There is a wonderful sense of poetry in this exhibition, so this is a big contribution. When the exhibition arrived in Shanghai, we wanted to involve Chinese artists because it made sense to do so. Not only does China have a very important scientific and astrophysics sector, but it has an equally strong space and design industry.”
The Astronomy Map Stele from the Southern Song Dynasty (collection of the National Museum of China).
Elisa Tirabassi
One of the main aims of the exhibition is to showcase the history of humanity’s exploration of the universe, as seen from multiple perspectives. Chinese exploration of the cosmos goes back a very long way. The first astronomical records were carved on animal bones. Among other artefacts on display at the exhibition is the Southern Song Dynasty Astronomy Map Stele. This stone carving is divided into two parts: at the top is a star map depicting 1,434 stars, and, below, an explanatory text on the theories of celestial movements, seasonal cycles and calendar calculations.
This exceptional work is considered to be much more systematic and complete than European star charts from the same era (1127). Modern astronomical analysis has confirmed, by means of computerised comparison, that the positions of the stars as depicted align surprisingly well with modern star catalogues.
Cosmic collisions, an interactive display created by the Laboratory for Experimental Museology (eM+), EPFL.
Elisa Tirabassi
Strengthening Swiss-Chinese cooperation
The exhibition’s success is largely thanks to direct cooperation between the EPFL’s Laboratory for Experimental Museology (eM+) and Laboratory of Astrophysics (LASTRO) and Chinese universities and scientific institutions.
“Our academy combined the artistic training of its students with scientific research, creating works that are perfect interfaces between art and space technology. Concepts such as the ancient, the contemporary and the future have come together,” says Danqing Shi, a professor at the Academy of Arts and Design at Beijing’s Tsinghua University and co-curator of the exhibition.
Among the visitors we also met Yungfeng, who works at Peking University.
“It is interesting to see what kind of insights on the past, present and future of the universe visitors to the exhibition can take home with them. It’s also fascinating to see the different projects by students and teachers from both Switzerland and China,” says the academic.
Square Kilometre Array (SKA) simulator created by the Laboratory for Experimental Museology (eM+), EPFL.
Elisa Tirabassi
After a slowdown during the Covid-19 pandemic, when travel between Switzerland and China was difficult, relations between the two countries have not yet returned to their previous levels. There is hope that cooperation can now be strengthened.
“Now we want to stimulate new contacts and hope that we have more cooperation in the future,” Swiss ambassador to China Jürg Burri said at the exhibition’s opening ceremony.
“Both culture and science are fields where it’s really a bottom up initiative. So it is the artist, it is the university, it is the scientist who takes the initiative or even private companies,” he added. “By bringing and helping artists and scientists with their projects here in China, we hope that we can create more contacts that will lead to more cooperation in the future.”
Edited by Daniele Mariani and Eduardo Simantob. Adapted from Italian by Julia Bassam/ac.
