At the Air and Space Museum, near Le Bourget airport, dozens of visitors, who come with family or friends, admire – raising their eyes to the sky – the aircraft present in the hall. Others head for a space on the left as they enter. A dark space at first, then lighted. An exhibition has been held there, organized by the establishment since December 2021, in partnership with the Epicure Studio agency: “Towards the Moon and beyond”, a formula taken from the famous replica of the character of Buzz Lightyear.
Its objective: to retrace the major dates of the space and lunar conquest. A story told with Lego bricks. “The idea of the exhibition is to tell the conquest of space in a more playful and synthetic way with bricks that are truly universal. We are on a common, shared reference, allowing many historical elements to be communicated through the same medium.“explains Nala Aloudat, head of exhibitions at the Air and Space Museum.
This exhibition “is part of the year of space: a cultural program with a spatial tint. There was a lot of news around the subject in 2021“indicates for its part the museum team.
Any history necessarily having a beginning, the exhibition returns first and foremost to the first hours of aeronautics and civil and military aviation. On this last point, models of planes, including those used during the First World War, are given pride of place.
In a second room, the exhibition emphasizes the spatial imagination through literary or cinematographic works: “From the Earth to the Moon” by Jules Verne, “The Little Prince” by Saint-Exupéry, the “Voyage on the Moon” by Méliès, or even the character of Tintin.
Then comes the time of space conquest, the “heart of the exhibition“, in the words of Nala Aloudat. Constructions of Lego brick rockets and timelines accompany you in this epic. From the work of Galileo to the Apollo XI mission, including the launch of the first satellite, the first man and the first animal in space. “We have a duty of transmission. There is a guaranteed watch to ensure that we have content that is relevant and scientifically accurate“precise the museum team.
It should be noted that the constructions were made from sets already existing in the Lego universe, and others made to measure for the exhibition, such as the Concorde “Sierra Delta”.
In total, 28 constructions are exhibited. This represents exactly 177,761 bricks. To build all this, it took 1105 hours of work for four designer-assemblers from Lego. Next to each construction is the number of parts that compose it, and the number of hours of work that were necessary.
Among the largest pieces that can be found: an astronaut in a spacesuit on the Moon with his Jeep (23,500 pieces for 240 hours of construction), a representation of the earth seen from space (18,000 bricks, 35 hours of construction) or a representation of an astronaut – faceless – in a spacesuit, in “life size” (18,000 bricks for 100 hours of construction). Figures, it is the case to say it, astronomical.
There are also reconstructions of Neil Armstrong’s first step on the Moon, innovations that the space race may have created, or even a collage of the computer code necessary for the Apollo XI mission and the woman working at NASA who developed it then.
Note that most constructions are protected by glass to prevent hands that are perhaps a little too curious from damaging them. Interestingly, this exhibition also retraces the history of plastic bricks, with pieces dating from the early days of the brand, up to more recent models.
Playful construction workshops with Lego bricks are also offered at the end of the visit: young and old will have the opportunity to learn more about the history of space conquest, while giving free rein to their imagination and their creativity. “Thus, it is not ‘only’ Lego constructions that are presented to the public: the exhibition aims to be a real bridge between culture and entertainment, and between history and modernity.“, indicates the museum on its website.
For its part, the public seems conquered. “I was expecting a little something, but I’m pleasantly surprised“, confides to us a lady, who came to visit the exhibition. Another visitor, adds: “It’s a great idea for kids. We came with my grandson who is a Lego fan.“. A third indicates for his part that he came with his wife and child “fan of rockets and Thomas Pesquet”. Manifestations of wonder from a class that came to admire the exhibition also resonate in the room.
We see that almost all visitors pass by the exhibition, or specifically ask the reception where it is located as soon as they arrive.
Nala Aloudat, head of exhibitions at the Air and Space Museum, in charge of the exhibition “Towards the Moon and beyond”–
The success is also felt on the side of the museum. “There was a call for air for this exhibition. We see that a priori, all the people who come to the museum at the moment go through the exhibition”noted the museum team. “This is not the case for the other temporary exhibitions. As the museum is very large, they are not all visited first. And there, we see that almost all visitors pass by the exhibition, or specifically ask at the reception where it is located as soon as they arrive”complete Nala Aloudat. “It has also been seen on social networks that the Lego exhibition page is one of the most shared on the site“, added the museum team.
The exhibition “To the Moon and beyond” is to be found until May 29, 2022. And for space lovers, the museum is also organizing an event on March 20, 2022 “March in March”, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It combines scientific popularization and cultural approach with the aim of unraveling the mysteries of the red planet and other stars in our solar system.
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