To The Moon is a collaboration between the American musician and media art pioneer Laurie Anderson and the prominent Taiwanese new media creator Huang Hsin-Chien. Its initial version, commissioned by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, was presented as a virtual reality (VR) work. Subsequently, the version in this exhibition, in which VR is integrated into a video installation, was first presented at the Manchester International Festival in 2019.

Drawing inspiration from mythology, literature, science, and politics of the ancient and modern world, the story takes the audience on a journey to the moon with powerful visuals and sound featuring images of the cosmos projected on three walls and the floor. This is followed by a 15-minute VR experience (reservations required), in which viewers themselves become astronauts, guided through six narratively structured scenes (Constellations, DNA Museum, Technology Wasteland, Stone Rose, Snow Mountain, and Donkey Ride), which deliver the experience of walking and leaping on the moon’s surface in low gravity. This idealistic visualization of humankind’s never-ending dreams of and longing for outer space, with a playful sense of humor that dares to satirize conflicts of national interest, encompasses both a remembrance of the history surrounding the moon landing and Anderson and Huang’s own sweeping and compassionate vision transcending ethnic and national boundaries.

Laurie Anderson is a performer, composer, and multimedia artist active since the 1970s, when she drew inspiration early on from the Conceptualist art movement. In 2002 she was appointed the first artist-in-residence at the United States space agency NASA, which led to the creation of To The Moon, and she presented her installation WALK and performance piece 10 Postcards at Expo 2005 Aichi.

Huang Hsin-Chien works at the intersection of art, design, engineering, and electronic gaming, and he has collaborated with Anderson on numerous projects, including works presented at Expo 2005 Aichi and the current project. Huang’s individual work has been shown at the Venice Film Festival (Italy), the Cannes Film Festival (France), the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (Taichung), the Shanghai Biennale (China), the Venice Biennale, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (USA), and Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria).

Laurie Anderson

• Born 1947 in Chicago, USA.
• Based in New York, USA.

Selected Works & Awards

2022

The Weather (solo), The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C., USA.

2022

Life on a String

2005

The Record of the Time (solo), NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo, Japan

2005

Walk/the performance piece 10 Postcards, EXPO 2005 AICHI, Aichi, Japan

2002

The first artist-in-residence of NASA

1986

Home of the Brave

1984

The Japan tour, Tokyo/Osaka, Japan

1981

O Superman

Related Information

Event

Video installation + VR
Sat, Jul 30 – Mon, Oct 10 8F, Aichi Arts Center
VR artwork requires reservation
https://reserva.be/aichi2022