The Arch Lunar Art Archive and Arch Mission Foundation Install the Works of 135 Contemporary Artists on the Surface of the Moon

Arch Lunar Art Archive
4 min readMar 11, 2024

--

Arch Lunar Art Archive on the Lunaprise payload, mounted to the Odysseus lunar lander in the Intuitive Machines IM-1 Mission.

The Arch Mission Foundation is proud to announce that the Arch Lunar Art Archive (ALAA) — an interstellar exhibition of 135 contemporary artists from around the world — successfully landed on the moon on February 22, 2024, aboard a payload on the Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander (via Lunaprise).

Joining Arch Mission’s Lunar Library, the ALAA extends the Foundation’s commitment to documenting and preserving human culture around the solar system. In 2019, Arch Mission deployed cutting-edge nanotechnology to send the largest library of human civilization into space via lunar lander. The 30-million-page Lunar Library consists of tens of thousands of books on all subjects, as well as all recorded history, a key to all known languages, and the entire English Wikipedia, making it one of the most durable archives of human history ever built.

In an effort that began during the height of Covid-19 in 2021, Arch Mission, under a curatorial partnership with ALAA, has now turned its attention to presentism, creating a survey of contemporary art over the course of the past 3 years with the Arch Lunar Art Archive. The ALAA features artists selected based on diversity of materials, age, gender, nationality, and ability, who all speak to today’s exceptional cultural moment. This unprecedented context allows for new meanings and perspectives to emerge when artists from around the world are placed within a shared curatorial framework with one another for the first time. Artists in the Arch Lunar Art Archive have exhibited in museums, are featured in major public collections, and have shown in galleries worldwide. The diverse global archive contains unique examples of art in all media.

This is what it means to be contemporary: to index a multifaceted present, to reevaluate the conventions of the past, and to turn our attention outward towards a boundless, promising future.

Each artwork is etched as a series of four monochrome analog bitmaps at microscopic scale into sheets of nickel using NanoFiche, using a patented nanotechnology process. These bitmaps, written at 300,000 DPI and representing each of the CMYK colors (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black), can be fully reconstructed to their original color. The images can be retrieved with only a microscope, and they do not require a computer to read them. Since these are analog images directly etched onto the medium, they are genuine artworks rather than mere digital representations, placed on the Moon.

Each artwork showcased in the Arch Lunar Art Archive will be minted as a non-fungible token, or NFT, with Blocktag™ authentication tags used for select artworks with a corresponding print edition. Blocktag™ uses a microscopic authentication feature that matches the NFT artwork with its physical counterpart, certifying each editioned print of art in the archive as unique. Deploying these emergent technologies means that each artwork will be registered with a serial ID to a blockchain, making all transactions verifiable and cryptographically secure. In support of ALAA artists’ continued creative practices, each work in the archive will be available for sale as a 1/1 NFT, with much of the proceeds benefiting the Arch Mission Foundation. Proceeds will help to support the Arch Mission’s non-profit archival and curation work on Earth and around the solar system.

Subscribe to ALAA’s newsletter for details on the inaugural NFT release for a number of the participating artists, allowing collectors an unprecedented opportunity to support their practices in a new medium for the first time.

Participating Artists

Aaron Naves

Adrian Pijoan

Alex Anderson

Alex Mackin Dolan

Alex Seton

Alice Wang

Allen Hung-Lun Chen

Allie Zhang

Amalia Ulman

Anarchy Dance Theatre

Andreas Rønholt Schmidt

Andrew Hahn

Andrew Norman Wilson

AP Nguyen

Asha Schecter

Asya Nur

Aura Rosenberg

Aushin Chang

Barak Zemer

Bart Seng

Bjarne Bare

Brigid Mason

Candice Jee with Yaya Huwat

Carol Strober

Casey Kauffmann

Chen Chien Jung

Chen Zi Yin

Chia Lee

Chris Hanke

Cindy Conrad

Dakota Blue

Danielle Dean

Donel Williams

Edgar Fabián Frías

Elliot Kaufman

Emily Yang 艾蜜莉

Emma Hazen

Erik Frydenborg

Erin Calla Watson

Ewa Wojciak

Filip Gilissen

Fiona Connor

Fung Yee Lick

Gabby Davis

Gauntlett Cheng

Giacomo Giannantonio

Gianna Surangkanjanajai

Gina Mei

Graham Epstein

Hanna Rose Stewart

Henri McMaster

Hooz

Horacio Alcolea Crespo

Ian Stanton

Idolate

Ilja Karilampi

Jacob Cruzen

Jared Madere

Jared Richardson (JVY)

Jasia Rabiej

Jason Meadows

Jasper Spicero

Jaybe Lee

Jeff Beall

Jeffrey Scudder

Jennifer Zhang

Jessica Hang

Johnny Forever Nawracaj (with sound by Gambletron)

Jon Pylypchuk

Jonathan Moore

JPW3

Julia Yerger

Juliana Halpert

Julie Lai

Kaiyen Tu

Kate Sansom

Kathy Haddad

Kent Twitchell

Lane Stewart

Lin Pei-Yao

Lindsay Lawson

Liya Yu

Liz Magic Lazer

Louie Shirase

Luis Serrano

Maria Petschnig

Martin Lammert

Mathias Toubro

Matt Siegle

Matthew Cherrie

Michael Pollard

Ming Yao Chang

Mitchell Syrop

MM33

Mooncat

Nao Bustamante

Natalie Astraea

Negashi Armada + Mickey Goodman

Ni Hao

Nick Hamburger

OUCHHH

Olammy

Paige K.B.

Paulson Lee

Peggy Peiting Huang

Peter Schulman

Rachel Zaretsky Radimir Koch

Ralph Kuo Chiang Wu

Rasmus Røhling

RESEARCH Publications

Retro1999

Robin Sparkes

Sam Anderson

Sam Mason

Sarah Rara

Scott Benzel

Scroll

Seyoung Yoon

Shana Moulton

Shang-Ru Lin

Shang-Yang Wu

So Youn Lee

Sylvia Hardy

Anna Lind-Guzik (The Conversationalist)

Tobias Sprichtig

Tore Wallert

Travis Diehl

Viola Morini

Wednesday Kim

Will Wharton

Wyatt Naoki Conlon

X-TRA and Project X Foundation For Art And Criticism

Zhuxue Deren

Zuzanna Bartoszek

CONTACT INFORMATION:
press@lun.art

--

--

Arch Lunar Art Archive

An extension of Arch Mission’s commitment to preserve human culture in outer space, this archive represents a snapshot of contemporary art. Learn more: lun.art