Althamer

Paweł Althamer

The Astronaut project originates from a performance Paweł Althamer realized in Bydgoszcz, Poland, in 1995 for a group exhibition at the local art museum. During his street action, Althamer wore a self-made astronaut suit, including white ski-shoes, a white military helmet acquired from Russian peddlers, a tight hand-sewn white costume complete with gloves, and a small TV monitor powered by a car battery mounted on an aluminium frame taken from a rucksack. Althamer slowly walked through the town, filming street life
and the passers-by with a video camera which registered and transmitted images in real time on the monitor on the artist’s back. After a two-hour walk, Althamer reached the museum. He left his accessories on one exhibition floor as “the objects to be exhibited.” The follow-up was Astronaut 2 at documenta X. Althamer tuned a military radio reconnaissance unit into a campervan alien. Parked in front of the Orangerie for the hundred days of the documenta, the vehicle became a dwelling for a homeless person from Poland. Two viewers at a time could be seated and watch a film on an LCD-screen, showing the Astronaut walking through Kassel and its outskirts.