N° 52–1995: Art in Space

It is almost three months since the start of the Euromir 95 mission. When leaving Earth on 3 September, ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, from Germany, took with him twenty works of art that had of course satisfied criteria for flight on Mir.

On 30 November Reiter and his Russian colleagues will announce which of the twenty works in their opinion best illustrates the theme "Space and Humanity".

The twenty works in question were selected in the course of a competition on the theme "Ars ad Astra" held by the OURS Foundation, a non-profit-making cultural and astronautical organisation based in Switzerland. They were chosen from a total of 171 works submitted by artists from all over the world for flight on the Euromir 95 mission.

The work which is judged best will be exhibited on board the Mir station. All works will be returned to Earth and exhibited around Europe.

During the "Art and Space" event at the Euro Space Center there will also be an exhibition of duplicates of the works of art carried into orbit. The exhibition will be attended by most of the artists.

In the course of the day the young artists and other participants will meet Space specialists, including European astronaut Ulf Merbold, who flew on Euromir 94.

The event is being organised jointly by ESA and the Euro Space Center, with the support of the Belgian Ministry of Science, Technology and Culture, and will begin at 10 a.m. Media representatives wishing to attend are asked to fill in and return the enclosed form to the Euro Space Center, preferably by fax.

For further information on the Ars ad Astra project, please contact Arthur Woods at the OURS Foundation:
tel. 41.1.865.08.53; fax 41.1.865.26.65.

For further information on the Mir link-up and the Euromir 95 mission, please contact ESA's Public Relations Division in Paris.