To the Moon in Mount Pleasant

TAKE the opportunity to see space differently at the Ballarat Municipal Observatory and Museum during Ballarat International Foto Biennale show, To the Moon and Back.

Now on until mid-October, the show will continue celebrating 50 years since Apollo 11. Audiences will be exposed to a diverse range of international contemporary artists exploring the 1969 moon landing and its visual legacy.

Co-Curator, Rebecca Najdowski said only some of the works are from that time period, following the Space Race.

“A lot of it is more contemporary, artistic explorations about the moon and mythology around the moon,” she said.

“There’s different mediums… a few different video pieces, and there’s a sculpture that is made from photographic, 3D rendered data, but it’s of the surface of the moon.

“That’s a touch and feel work where somebody can actually go up and physically touch the craters of the moon.”

The exhibition spreads across the Observatory’s multiple buildings and telescope rooms.

“We have different artists taking over different spaces. A couple of them are thinking beyond framed prints on the wall, so they’re creative installations,” Ms Najdowski said.

These artists include Australia’s Andrew Curtis, Vincent Fournier from France, America’s Sharon Harper, Penelope Umbrico and Matt Lipps, Switzerland’s Sasha Huber, Qicong Lin from China, and Jorge Mañes Rubio of Spain.

Ms Najdowski loves the show because it gets people thinking about the moon in a myriad of ways.

“It’s really looking back at what it means for us here on earth, why we look at the moon, what we think about and imagine. It offers lots of different perspectives on that, which is one of the appeals,” she said.

To the Moon and Back is an all-ages show, and alongside the exhibition, the Observatory is running an educational component.

Ballarat Municipal Observatory and Museum Manger, Judith Bailey is excited by the activities planned.

“We’ll have sun printing, and a light box with various things you can put on like astronauts, to show what they need to go to the moon. The theme of Science Week this year was space, so we’ve continued into the Foto Biennale,” she said.

The Observatory has been involved with the Biennale for a few years now.

“We were running fringe events, and in 2017 we ran a core exhibition. Rebecca curated it and it was very successful. People loved the venue.

“I threw out the idea of the 50^th anniversary coming in 2019. She collaborated with Dr Colleen Boyle and together they’ve put together the show. It will be an eight-week program instead of four weeks, this year,” Ms Bailey said.

Find the Observatory on the corner of Magpie and Cobden Streets, Mount Pleasant. More information is available at ballaratfoto.org/events/to-the-moon-and-back.