They went to explore the moon but instead discovered the Earth. At least that’s the way we like to remember the Apollo 8 crew, members of the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon, when they brought back “Earthrise.” It is considered to be one of the 100 photographs that changed the world and perhaps literally, in this case, as changing the world often really implies changing our world view. And who doesn’t know by now that other view-altering image of the Earth, “The Pale Blue Dot,” taken from 3.7 billion miles away? “Look again at that dot,” Carl Sagan remarked poetically in 1996, “That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.”

But today, or as early as next year, we will have the viewing pleasure of witnessing the first artist—who happens to be a photographer—in space! I first discovered the work of Michael Najjar at “Accumulations,” a themed video art exhibition currently on display at Galerie Sherin Najjar. After learning he’s been receiving proper astronaut training for the past few months in preparation for his Virgin Galactic flight, I scheduled an interview with him at a place here in Berlin where further training could be conducted: The Computerspielemuseum, where one may train to protect the planet from alien Space Invaders. Logical, right? 

Not challenged by “Space Invaders,” Najjar explores newer technologies. Photo: Chris Phillips

The aesthetic practice of Michael Najjar, who primarily works with photography and video, is fueled by computer and information technologies. Instead of reflecting our present day reality, his camera projects our possible future dispositions. Not content with the limitations of a captured image or vision, Najjar often seeks to engulf himself fully in the experience at the other side of the lens. For this reason, he climbed Mt. Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas, in pursuit of his “high altitude” series, which intertwines the reality and simulation of financial markets around the globe as represented by the peaks and groves of the mountains he encountered.

The Outer Studio Space

Michael is not your typical studio artist—indeed, he is far from it (literally). Although inspired by the unknown, what really seems to attract him is the realization that what may appear beyond grasp may not be so after all. “Being an artist, my goal is always trying to push the limits; find the limits, detect the limits and go a step further,” Najjar explained at a recent TEDxTalk event, “and after the summit of Aconcagua, a step further is outer space.”

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Painting by Catrin Walz Stein

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