Artist Rostan Tavasiev, Patreart Agency, and the Skoltech Space Center (SSC) start a research project aiming to design a prospective space mission with the goal to turn small-size asteroids into pieces of art. In the joint study, the team will design specifically shaped stations to be deployed on asteroids. This ingenious approach soundly based on scientific research and enlivened by artistic imagination will help gain new insights into the world’s future.

Rostan Tavasiev closely collaborates with scientists within his “Art in Space” project that started with a series of interviews with Sergei Popov, an astrophysicist and a professor at Moscow State University. As the first step, Rostan created a series of sketches for planetary nebula sculptures. Right now, he is looking for approaches to work with asteroids. “Perhaps, the history of art began with our distant ancestor picking up a stone off the ground. It will be fair if its space cousins, asteroids, become pioneers of space art. Since the earliest times, sculptors have been trying to make a stone look like a living thing, but can we create a piece of  art from an asteroid using modern technology?” Rostan Tavasiev says.

In previous research, the SSC team studied an asteroid mining problem with an application to supply a prospective martian base with various resources to ensure its sustainable growth and development. In the joint study, the team will also have to identify target objects − near-Earth and main belt asteroids – to be embodied in large-scale works of art. “We plan to define the main parameters of space observation human eyes-shaped modules and see how they can be delivered to asteroids from Mars’ surface. Once the study is complete, we will have a deeper understanding of the feasibility of the author’s idea as a future space mission,” SSC PhD student Shamil Biktimirov explains.

This collaborative research was initiated by Patreart, a non-profit organization that promotes Russian contemporary art. “Clearly, this project is out of line with the logic of artistic production, and this is exactly why we find it so inspiring. The artist’s ideas attract much interest among scientists as a way to look at the object of research through an artist’s eyes. Now we join efforts to explore the boundaries between the unknown and the impossible both in art and in science,” Maria Litvinova, co-founder of Patreart, comments.

The artist records the research findings in the form of interviews, journals, and graphic sketches which he will then use to create a new art project and answer the question, “What would art be like in space environment?” A series of work-in-progress presentations will be held throughout the study to review interim results. This kind of research helps generate new creative approaches by blending science and art paradigms.

“Most people keen on space exploration will find a description of future space missions and their objectives too dull. By teaming up with artists, we expect to create a new vision of the 21st century and share it with others,” SSC director Anton Ivanov notes.

The Skoltech Space Center (SSC) founded in 2011 offers MSC and PhD programs in space technology and robotics and engages in wide-ranging research covering advanced manufacturing technologies, small satellites, robotics, the effects of forests on Earth’s climate, space weather, and more.

Rostan Tavasiev is a Russian artist and a graduate of Stroganov Academy and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Moscow. His works make part of the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, and the Multimedia Art Museum.

Patreart is an autonomous non-profit organisation acting as a production agency for Russian contemporary artists, and a platform that connects creative ideas with diverse resources.

 

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