From September 13 to 27, 2025, the Observatoire de l’Espace of CNES presents "La condition extra-terrestre" at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles in Paris, an artistic exploration of a human condition imagined beyond Earth.
This exhibition offers a reflection on the extra-terrestrial state, defined by an environment beyond the Earth’s surface and a unique approach to our terrestrial condition and the development of space activities. Eleven artists, supported by the Observatoire de l’Espace of CNES in their creative process, explore this theme through three different approaches.
Raphaël Dallaporta, Sylvie Bonnot, Benoît Géhanne, Élise Parré, and Simon Zagari engage with the historicity of the extra-terrestrial condition, exploring the technical, political, and scientific aspects that made such a state attainable. Amélie Bouvier, Annabelle Guetatra, Olivain Porry, and Jeanne Susplugas focus on the evolution of our mindsets, considering the interactions between the extra-terrestrial and our world, and the ways in which they transform our practices on Earth, whether technical, scientific, or spiritual. Finally, the works created in weightlessness by Smith and Arthur Desmoulin, along with Stéphane Thidet’s OSCAR project, illustrate the creative opportunities offered by the extra-terrestrial condition, providing visitors with a phenomenological experience of Space. Presented in a brutalist setting, the works reveal certain specificities of the extra-terrestrial condition, encouraging us to rethink our mental constructions of Space without definitively severing ties with Earth.
This exhibition is co-produced with the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles in Paris, as part of the Observatoire de l’Espace's outreach program, aimed at bringing to a broad audience artworks by artists in residence, either newly created or drawn from its contemporary art collection.
