Wild Sky

The group exhibition Wild Sky depicts 12 artistic positions on the image of the sun, the cosmos and other celestial phenomena. The works reflect our desire to explore the sky, to measure it and record it. Wild Sky brings together photography, video and installations under one roof.

All the works take up a question that has haunted us for ages: How can we possibly explore and investigate the sky above us if the intensity of the sun's rays and the vastness of the universe make it impossible to grasp the cosmos directly and fully?

Yesterday and today, the urge to solve this problem has been a driving force behind technological innovation. Optical devices such as Camera Obscura and the telescope or mathematical models are intended to compensate for the inadequacy of the human eye.

But at the same time, every new advance we make in the vastness of space has revealed yet another limit to our technology and our knowledge. Thus the scientific, technical image of the sky has always been paired with the concept of a mystical "force"; reason paired with madness.

For the exhibition in the Edith Russ Site for Media Art, curator Michael Connor chose 12 international artists whose works deal with the traces of light that celestial phenomena leave on film, video, or on the human retina. Starry skies, sunsets and satellites are the force behind these motifs.