Exhibition, 5 Apr 2018 - 7 Oct 2018

Gravité Zéro - Une exploration artistique de l'espace

Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France

Following the deposit of CNES 'collection of contemporary art at the Abattoirs, the teams of the Abattoirs, Musée - Frac Occitanie Toulouse and the Observatoire de l'Espace of CNES join forces for an exhibition entitled Gravité zéro.

If men were able to concretely realize the conquest of space in the 1960s, artists have gone into space thanks to fiction for centuries. How the actual realization of this utopia and its history have come true are at the heart of the works commissioned by CNES, however the links between artists and astronauts date back to the beginnings of this conquest.

On several occasions, the artists - from Robert Rauschenberg to Paul Van Hoeydonck - have designed works that space travel would have or have actually left on the moon. If science fiction has often made its salt of life beyond the Earth, this exhibition project brings together works that are anchored on the reality of space travel. Artists rediscover history, archives, dreams but also disappointments, we tell the life of the astronauts or trying to be.

The utopian dreams of artistic creation and exploration of space meet on the first floor of the Abattoirs, transformed into an immersive stage. Among the twenty or so works presented, one of the works has itself been done in space, the astronaut Thomas Pesquet having become for the artist Eduardo Kac a performer during his trip. Lavideo, the result of this artistic act conceived to be only feasible in space in zero gravity, will be presented within the exhibition.

On this occasion, the Pneumatic Rocket by Yves Klein will be presented.