Opening of the exhibition “Mars. The Red Mirror” at CCCB, with a high participation of IEEC members

2021-02-25 11:30:00
Today, Thursday 25 February 2021, the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) opens the exhibition "Mars. The Red Mirror". The exhibition, which will be open from 25 February to 11 July, has been carried out in collaboration with researchers from the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya), among many other entities and people. 

The topic of the exhibition is the link between humans and Mars, from ancient times to the present day. Science, art and literature interact in this major exhibition project that coincides with the arrival of three space missions to the red planet. "Mars. The Red Mirror" explores the human condition and its future as a species, and the ultimate nature of the Universe.

The exhibition displays the multiple narratives that have been generated around Mars, from antiquity, through current science and research, to the impact that the Martian imaginary has had on fiction. The exhibition also opens up spaces for reflection and knowledge about what we can learn from the Red Planet, the climate crisis and human life on a hypothetical planet B. With more than 400 objects, including incunabula, sculptures, drawings, comics, films, handwritten documents, collector's items and even a Martian meteorite, the exhibition is an exhaustive attempt to raise awareness of artistic, literary and scientific creation around Mars.
 
In parallel, a programme of debates, films, meetings with experts, educational and mediation activities enriches this exhibition project that connects human beings with the challenges of the future at a time of maximum historical relevance on the planet Mars.
 

Members of all the research units of IEEC —  the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the Universitat de Barcelona (ICCUB), the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC), the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) —  will also participate in the activities that have been organised around the exhibition:

  • Live Broadcast  with commentary of the "Perseverance" Rover landing on the Martian surface on 18 February from 20:00 h, with the presence of IEEC members Guillem Anglada-Escudé (ICE) and Miquel Sureda (UPC).
  • Collaboration with the Banco Sabadell Foundation in the ALIA Project, an educational and outreach program articulated around the relationship between science and imagination, between scientific and technological knowledge and literary and artistic experimentation. The project is aimed at primary and secondary school students, and the general public at the CCCB, and it develops through three parallel programmes:
  1. ALIA Mission, an educational project for 4th year of Secondary School and 1st year of High School students from six high schools in Barcelona, whose aim is to link scientific dissemination and literary creation, and which has been advised by the researcher Kike Herrero (IEEC). Researchers Francesc Gòdia (UAB), Carme Jordi (ICCUB), Guillem Anglada-Escudé (ICE), Ignasi Ribas (ICE) and Jordi Portell (ICCUB) will participate in the visits to the selected high schools.
  2. Curiosity Mission, a Martian exploration project manned by primary school students visiting the exhibition. They will pose questions about Mars and space exploration to Catalan scientists working in international research institutions.
  3. Art at IEEC: "A synthetic forest inside a stone", in which the artist Serafín Álvarez, in contact with IEEC researchers, will share the creation process of his artistic project, which consists of building a virtual Martian landscape to make an exercise of speculation about life on other worlds that may already be ours. The details of this residency have yet to be finalised, due to the current pandemic situation.
  • Participation in three debates in the conferences series "Mars: The Last Frontier?", which will feature scientists and thinkers from different disciplines analysing the contradictions posed by the project to colonise Mars and turn humans into a multi-planetary species. Within this series, on Saturday, 27 February from 6:00-7:30 pm, the researcher Guillem Anglada-Escudé (ICE) will participate in the Frontier debate; on Friday, 5 March from 6:00-7:30 pm, the director of IEEC Ignasi Ribas (ICE), along with Miquel Sureda (UPC), will take part in the debate Testing; and on Saturday, 6 March, from 6:00-7:30 pm, researchers Carme Jordi and Xavier Luri (ICCUB) will talk about the latest advances in space observation and the big questions we still have to answer about the cosmos as part of the debate Cosmos.
  • Researcher Francesc Gòdia (UAB) will conduct a virtual tour of the MELiSSA Pilot Plant as part of the ARES Station, a space set up at the entrance to the exhibition, the purpose of which is to go into the technical details of the scientific projects presented there. The session is scheduled for Tuesday 27 April at 6.30 pm and will last approximately 90 minutes. In parallel, a visit to the Pilot Plant is also scheduled for the Friends of the CCCB, although the details of this activity are still pending due to restrictions imposed by COVID-19.

We hope that both the exhibition and all these activities will be a great success!

Image: 2021_02_Mars_2.jpg
Title: Mars. The Red Mirror
Caption: Poster of the exhibition "Mars. The Red Mirror”, which opens today, Thursday 25 February 2021.
Credit: Centre de Cultura Contemporànea de Barcelona (CCCB).

Share This