Seen from here, on Earth, in his studio a Manhattan on Tenth Avenue, the techno-lunar project of Jeff Koons it looked creative and beautiful. There were expanses of large sheets of paper with its moons printed in succession of shades, 125, to be precise, determined by the phases of the moon, 62 images of the Moon seen from our planet the other 62 seen from space. The one hundred and twenty-fifth is an eclipse. There were models of small spheres 2.5 centimeters in diameter aligned inside a transparent cube, each dedicated to a great name for humanity of the past. And there he was, Jeff, always a man genuinely warm in his human relationship who explained to me with the enthusiasm and joy of a child the scope of his project.
Now, two years later, Jeff tells me, in his usual very calm but not very firm voice: «We are on our way to Moon…», «We are flying to the Moon. I was at Kennedy Center for the lift off – he says – Now we wait the landing, on February 22nd. I will never forget the inexplicable physical sensation, the power that emanates from this machine created by humanity which penetrates space with incredible force. I had chills. Memories crowded together. As a child, I listened John Kennedy that promised the conquest of our satellite. All in harmony with the meaning of my artistic project: humanity collectively develops technology as a tool for progress, not to be a victim of it.”
In fact, the rocket booster Falcon 9 Of SpaceX di Elon Musk it is innovative and very powerful. It is also the first private carrier for the Moon. At dawn last Thursday, he rose into space from the platform 39A of the Kennedy Center Nasathe same one from where it took off Saturn V for the last American mission to the Moon of Apollo 17. Fifty-two years have passed. On his head he carried Odysseus, the Nova-C lunar module, the size of a telephone booth, produced by Intuitive Machine. Now Odysseus it is traveling “to infinity and beyond”, with its load of NASA instruments of detectors, cameras to send images of the sculpture back to Earth and, obviously, with the sculpture itself: the transparent cube with its 125 changing moons. It will be the first sculpture to be permanently displayed on another planet.
This new work by Koons is fundamental to his growth process in digital art. He worked with NFMoon, specialized in digital art and with 4Space for the production of the cube. And with Pace Gallery, the global gallery founded by the legendary and brilliant Arne Glimcher, which Koons, to the amazement of the art world, landed on after leaving Gagosian a few years ago. Today Pace, under the leadership of Arne’s son Marc, is one of the most cutting-edge galleries in digital art.
Taken as a whole, it is themost advanced artistic operation of our time, both on a conceptual and practical level: «We cannot go to the Moon without technology. And the sculpture on the Moon pays homage to the genius and human warmth that brought us this far. It’s a bridge. For this reason – Koons explains to me – each of these small moons bears the name of someone important to our humanity, from Plato to Leonardo to Artemisia Gentileschi, icons of the past representing humanity. Symbolically they are enclosed together in the cube to demonstrate that the effort was collective – and this is a central point – to always remember how we got to where we are, together: thanks to the creativity, sensitivity, passion, genius of men and women who made us dream.”
Let’s face it, poets, artists, astronomers, philosophers, Leopardi’s shepherd and every ordinary person, everyone, we have had a moment of our warm and mysterious dreamy intimacy with the Moon. Now, in the name of the triumph of humanism that uses techno-digital tools, Jeff Koons will find himself measuring his moment of personal intimacy with this beautiful Moon of ours: through its sculpture which will sit perpetually near the South Pole of our satellite. And we have to ask ourselves if this great global artistcontroversial and brilliant, will be able to make this artistic transition into digital art and assert himself again in his world, that of critics and collectors, of museums, with an unusual work of art to which he has dedicated years of work. It is a passage to follow carefully because in the face of his creative tenacity and innovative strength to keep up with the times, there is also him, a white man, no longer youngwhich has already been successful – and therefore, in the short-sighted contemporary subculture, generally it should have already been passed. Knowing Jeff Koons, he will go his way, as he always has. Since his first artistic steps in the 1980s, Koons has left an indelible mark on the art world, using colors, innocent sculptures that take us back to childhood, projecting optimism and cheerfulness in a rather dark period. It was also the detonator that allowed the combustion between the extraordinary wealth which has accumulated over the last twenty years. A compound triangle by the artist, the collector and the gallery ownerall three now global, if they operate at maximum levels.
This new lunar challenge is in continuity with his previous ones and innovates by producing a three-dimensional work. The first dimension is the sculpture on the Moon, the second is the NFTs arriving from the Moon, representing the small moons in the cube, the third is the individual sculptures on Earth. Each NFT is representative of one of the little moons. This will give to the collector material property, but virtual, given that it is on the Moon, of the small chosen sphere, dedicated to a historical figure. Finally, there is the third dimension, terrestrial, the stainless steel ball representative in every detail of the his space alter ego with the lunar shade described by a transparent ink and with a precious stone, a sapphire a diamondan emerald depending on the point of view set in the sphere to indicate the precise point where, on the Moon, the smaller twin is set up. An intertwining and a dialogue between Earth and space and between technology and, as we have said, symbols of humanity.
Among the names, in addition to those mentioned above, there are those of Ada Lovelace, Gabriel García Márquez, Andy Warhol, Nefertiti, Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali, Albert Einstein and another hundred. In the face of always subjective opinions, be they negative or favorable criticisms, for everyone an absolute record for the history of art will remain irrefutable and objective: from Wednesday, Jeff Koons will be the first artist to have his own permanent and official work (certified by NASA) on our satellite. L’aging white with too many years of success, with the record price for one of his sculptures, Rabbit (91.1 million dollars), also in stainless steel, continues and will continue to surprise us. Making history and poetry.
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– 2024-04-07 08:24:40
