How do we imagine distant worlds? What changes might result from our speculative or perhaps real voyages to other celestial bodies? Following on from his ‘un·Earthing’ concept and his exploration of visual effects in the sci-fi genre, Ralo Mayer is showing a film about clouds, storms and atmospheres that seem light years away, yet earthly close.

From the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, so-called ‘cloud tanks’ were used in science fiction, horror and fantasy films to generate changing atmospheric backgrounds – before digital computer graphics took over this task. Mayer makes use of the same analogue trick for his ‘atmosphere fairytale’. Stunning hyper-realistic images tell of fantastic changes in the heavens, of dramatic weather and climate phenomena. At first glance they confront us with a sea of clouds, which is reminiscent of Romantic landscape painting in its opulent frenzy of colours. Once inexorably drawn into these psychedelic vortices of light and colour, our synapses explode and entire universes open up, galaxies with their suns and planets, a gateway to the stars and to transcendence. Distant ‘radio signals’ reach us. A voice speaks of the first signs of life in alien worlds.

Interstellar economies and humanoid space settlements are no fairy tales; indeed, our escape into space will be necessary at the latest once the survival of the human species is actually at stake. The clouds of the (cosmic) present are artificial: a ‘second nature’, of the kind that has long been negotiated for our earthly heavens.

* 1976 in Eisenstadt, lives and works in Vienna.

Performance von Ralo Mayer
SPACE ACTS (UN·EARTHING EXERCISE)

Wie bereitet man den eigenen Körper auf ein Leben auf anderen Planeten vor? Wie schmeckt ein Asteroid? Und welche kolonialen Beziehungen werden durch den Abbau außerirdischer Ressourcen entstehen? Der Künstler und bekennende „meteorite licker“ Ralo Mayer lädt die Teilnehmer:innen zu einer Praxis des „Un·Earthing“ ein, einer Reise, die sich um Meteoriten, Pharmakologie und physischen Kontakt mit Teilen des Kosmos dreht. Alle Teilnehmer:innen erhalten einen kleinen Meteoritenteil.
→ DI 26.9. 18:00
HIER ANMELDEN

CLOSE UP
Ralo Mayer (*1976 in Eisenstadt) is interested in future utopias and the history of space exploration. How do we imagine distant worlds? And what changes result from our speculative as well as perhaps real visits to other celestial bodies? Following on from his concept "Un-Earthing" and his preoccupation with visual effects in the science fiction genre, a film was made about clouds, storms and atmospheres that seem light years away and at the same time earthly close.