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ABSTRACT ©2019 ISAST would extend as an artistic 50-year project into the year 2045: (Noordung1995–2045).According Živadinov,to project this project Cosmistic the and Miha Turšič). (research undertaken by Dragan Živadinov, Dunja Zupančič “postgravityart” hassynonymousbecome with project 50-year the on focused has collective the 1995, Since NSK. the mid-1990s, advocated for a complete separation [3] from Noordung’s since and director—has, cosmonaut candidate Dragan NSK, with ground common dung’s and the painters’ collective IRWIN. However, despite Noor one of NSK’s main groups, along with Cabinetthe Cosmokinetic and group 1983–1987, Cosmokinetic TheaterRed Pilotfrom 1987–1990, Theater dung (called the[2] Sistersof Scipio of from Nasica SlowenischeKunst Cabinet Cosmokinetic (NSK)[1], the Neueater,Sloveniancollective the artistof ballet andfor opera department the as 1983 in established Originally 50-year projectNoordung1995–2045. Živadinov; andsketchesthepast,presentfutureofcollective’s garde (especiallySuprematism)aspostulatedbytheaterdirectorDragan questions therelationshipbetweenzerogravityandhistoricalavant- Potocˇnik1928 byHermann NoordunginTheProblemofSpaceTravel the originofaspacestationrotatingarounditsownaxis(designedin Itdescribes inzerogravity(“postgravityart”). to abolishmimeticart and theatercollectiveCosmokineticCabinetNoordungitseffort presentstheworkofretro-utopianSlovenianperformance This article and theAbolitionofHorizon Zero Gravity, Anti- l a r e n e G with thisissue. See www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/leon/52/1 forsupplementalfilesassociated Email: [email protected]. Web: www.hmkv.de, www.inkearns.de. Inke Arns (curator, director), HMKV, Hoher Wall 15, 44137 Dortmund, Germany. In 1993, Dragan Živadinov announced the beginning of beginning the announced Živadinov Dragan 1993, In actors live in . The premiere is to take place on place take to is premiere The Ljubljana. in live 12 actors The Shakespeare. William theme: The premiere. the in appearing actors 12 be will There Ljubljana. in per formed be will premiere a p.m., 8:00 at 1995, 20, April On Noordungcontext,notion this 1995–2045 the and, in On A e k n I “Postgravity doi:10.1162/LEON_a_01377 A e l c i t r

Cosmokinetic r Inhabited Sculpture One against One One against InhabitedOne Sculpture n s Noordung since 1990) has been been has 1990)Noordung since

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- ); - - - have been developed “in the spirit of Hermann Noordung”Hermannofspirit the “in developed been have observatory rotating around its own axis. All the projects that held in weightless conditions in a collective orbital theater, an May 1, 2045.” The final reprise of on die retro-garde. will ish“Dragan ŽivadinovHepredicts: abol thus and orbit, geostationary 35,786-km-altitude a in tuted for the actors substi (umbots) near communicationsrobots satellites remote-controlled 14 the position to order in space into travel will Živadinov iteration, final the For director. its by organized is material whose of work tal to ideal sounds—an and rhythms symbols, of full be will stage the and alive, be will director, the he, only dead; be will actors Živadinov, the accordingto 2045, all iterationin last the of time the At effects. sound or musical producing deaths their replacedafter by robots be each lives,will their sculpture” on the subject “Love and State” [6] until the end of “inhabited this in participate to contractby boundare who Ljubljana in 1995 and repeats at 10-year intervals. The actors, litveni stroj] for the production of holiness” [5] premiered in the earth. There they will be givenbe Therewill they over earth. the the cosmosto [4]. rocket to the point of zero gravity, 38,000 kilometers above a by taken be will they there from and Russia to symbols the bring then will I symbols. of full be will stage the and fourth one in 2035. Thelast reprise is totake place in 2045. be replaced by symbols. Thethird reprise is due in 2025,the ones will therebydeceased repeated. the will be action All ones were present. placed by rhythm. The live actorswill re act as if be the deceased will actors deceased of parts Verbal timing. same the within by replaced be will actress deceased a ofVerbal there. parts placed be will symbol a performed, symbol. According to the mise-en-scène, where a live actor except if someonebe will replaced dies. The deceased by a costumes, same scenography. Everything is to be the same, same place, same time, same actors, same the later.With years 10 i.e. 2005, in due firstis AprilThe reprise 1995. 20, The drama The

By that time all the actors will be dead. I will be alive alive be will I dead. be will actors the all time that By whole The 2015. year the in due is reprise second The Noordung’s Noordung“prayer[mo- machinea 1995–2045 , LEONARDO, Vol. 52,No.1, pp.17–22,2019 Noordung 1995–2045 will be  - - - - 17 by Cosmokinetic Cabinet Noordung will culminate in this In his illustrated book The Problem of Space Travel: The performance and thus “come to an end” [7]. Rocket Motor [15], originally written in German and pub- The group has been working on the actual implementation lished in 1928 [16], Noordung was the first to describe a of this long-term project since 1998. In July 1998, Dragan technically detailed space station rotating on its own axis in Živadinov passed all medical examinations necessary for order to generate artificial gravity. This wheel-shaped space cosmonaut training. Then, on 15 December 1999, members station reappeared later in Willy Ley’s book The Conquest of of Cosmokinetic Cabinet Noordung completed a training Space (1949); in Willy Ley and ’s articles flight near —with over 20 flight parabolas—to pre- in the series Man Will Conquer Space Soon!, published in Col- pare them for a possible future orbital mission [8]. This event, lier’s Weekly (1952–1954) (Ley and von Braun recycled ideas referred to as Noordung Gravitacija Nič (or as Noordung Bio- from Noordung’s book circulating at the Verein für Raum- mechanics), took place at Jurij Gagarin Cosmonaut Train- schiffahrt in Berlin in the late 1920s); and then in the ing Facility in Star City (Zvezdnyj gorod). All this testifies to , and , the obsessive seriousness with which Cosmokinetic Cabinet which realized with Ley and von Braun (1952– Noordung is embarking on the path of the Slovenian space 1953) [17]. Finally, the wheel-shaped space station achieved pioneer Herman Potočnik Noordung. More than that, this world fame through Arthur C. Clarke’s novel 2001—A Space project is about submitting one’s own body to a radical physical Odyssey (1968) and Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 eponymous cult understanding of the ideas and concepts of the historical avant- movie. garde [9]. For both actors and audience, the utopian project In 1993, inspired by Dragan Živadinov, the Viennese pub- of a “total theater” of the avant-garde of the early 1930s is lisher Turia+Kant was the first to publish a reprint of the transforming into a claustrophobic, totalitarian inner space. original German edition of Noordung’s Das Problem der It is a theater machine that literally moves its viewers—be- Befahrung des Weltraums—Der Raketenmotor [18]. Apart cause, for the observatory, as Noordung wrote in 1928, it is from a technically elaborate description of the space station, “primarily . . . important . . . that any arbitrary orientation in Noordung also supplies a wealth of ideas for possible ex- space, which is necessitated by the observations to be carried periments in the space observatory in this book. Experts of out, can easily be assumed” [10]. space medicine therefore consider Noordung to be one of the founders of their discipline [19]. Noordung’s text also describes a geostationary satellite 35,786 km above Earth and Herman Potocˇnik Noordung, Space Pioneer develops ideas for autonomous power generation in the space This afternoon just as I was leaving for the Otters Club to station through a combination of solar, steam and electric beat up the locals at table tennis, I noticed two young Eu- motors. ropean backpackers hovering around my gate. Stopped to According to Noordung, the space station would consist find who they were, and discovered they were a couple of of three individual entities: , who’d hiked here to deliver this book to me!! Do First, the “habitat wheel,” in which a man-made gravita- you know it? I’ve never seen the original, and the illustra- tional state is continually maintained through rotation . . . ; tions are fascinating. Though of course, I was familiar with second, the “observatory”; and third, the “machine room.” some of them, notably the space station design. While retaining the weightless state, the latter two are only —Arthur C. Clarke, 15 January 1993 [11] equipped in accordance with their special functions; they provide the personnel on duty with a place for performing Since the early 1990s, the work of Cosmokinetic Cabinet has their work, but only for a short stay [20]. been dominated by the ideas of Hermann Potočnik Noor- For the observatory, it would be essential “that any arbi- dung [12] (1892–1929)—a Slovenian engineer who signifi- trary orientation in space, which is necessitated by the obser- cantly influenced twentieth-century space technology as well vations to be carried out, can easily be assumed” [21]. as twentieth-century science fiction. After having (barely) survived World War I, he devoted himself in private studies Red Pilot and the Victory over Gravity to exploring space, until he died of pneumonia in 1929 at the age of only 36. Along with Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert Živadinov’s plans for a space theater can be traced to the Goddard and Herrmann Oberth, Noordung is among the 1980s. His fascination with Noordung probably kicked off masterminds of manned space flight. However, as J.D. Hun- with the first Slovenian of The Problem of Space ley has noted, because of the lack of of Noor- Travel in 1986. Since 1987—that is, since the year Živadinov’s dung’s work [13], Noordung has never been fully recognized collective was reinvented as Cosmokinetic TheatreRed Pilot for his achievements: and the “Observatories” performed by this group—the the- ater collective has dealt intensively with the topics of flight, Both Frank Winter and Adam Gruen have suggested that space travel and the technical and literary fantasies linked Potočnik’s book formed the basis for a plotless short story to these topics. entitled “Lunetta” that Wernher von Braun wrote in 1929, The Cosmokinetic Red Pilot produced three per- describing a trip to a space station. If correct, this hypoth- formances: Drama Observatory Fiat [22] (1987), Ballet Ob- esis would suggest an important link in the evolution about servatory Zenit [23] (1988) and Drama Observatory Zenit ideas for a space station [14]. [24] (1988). The to the historical avant-garde; to

18 Arns, Zero Gravity, Anti-Mimesis and the Abolition of the Horizon

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_a_01377 by guest on 02 October 2021 , and ; and especially to ­ of its 50 points of reference [35]. However, while the AAA is Hermann Potočnik Noordung became very clear in these fighting for autonomous space programs and ademocratiza - three productions [25]. In their founding manifesto, pub- tion of space travel, Dragan Živadinov aims at something lished in the Slovenian daily Delo [26], the group members very different: He wants to realize one of the avant-garde’s speak of themselves as people “with a focus on the front por- central utopias—the creation of a genuinely . tion of the head” who “discover the geographical center in When interviewed by Rob La Frenais shortly before embark- movement”—as people who have overcome Earth’s gravita- ing on a parabolic flight in December 1999 near Moscow, tion: Dragan Živadinov appeared as a metaphysical cosmonaut. When La Frenais asked, “Why should artists go into space? WE have no Platform. WE are COSMOKINETIC THE- What would you answer a scientist who said that artists ATER “RED PILOT.” WE need no lungs, liver and equi- cannot do anything useful in space?,” Živadinov answered: librium, for WE are released from gravitation. WE have “Humans need artists for the metaphysical.” To the ques- no genitals, for WE are emancipated from the lust for tion: “Is space a place for the avant-garde?” he replied: “It freedom. WE have built the Observatory for conquering is a place exclusively for the avant-garde” [36]. According to parallel worlds. WE are workers who build the Drama of Živadinov, it is only in zero gravity (“la grande avant-garde the Universe [27]. gravitation-0”) [37] that one can create abstract art and thus Since 1987, movement (“kinetic talent”), power, dynamism realize the project initiated by Suprematism at the beginning and detachment from Earth have become the guiding prin- of the twentieth century. ciples of the theater collective. The production titles listed by It is therefore not only the colorful and explicitly construc- Cosmokinetic TheatreRed Pilot point to significant points of tivist dancers’ costumes in Noordung Biomechanics (origi- reference, especially in regard to the historical avant-garde. nally called Noordung Gravitacija Nič, 1999) [38] that relate to Observatory Zenit, for example, refers to the avant-garde the historical avant-garde (referring to Aleksandr Rodčenko’s magazine Zenit, which was founded in in 1921. It and Varvara Stepanova’s fashion designs). Rather, Noordung was the mouthpiece of “Zenitizam” [28], a Yugoslav variant Biomechanics represents a radical return to the ideas of the of constructivism. Yugoslav consisted of a mix of historical avant-garde: It is about creating the conditions for influences from Russian Constructivism, Italian Futurism a nonobjective, abstract art with the means of today’s technol- and Expressionist tendencies [29]. Rdeči Pilot (Red Pilot) ogy. According to Michael Benson, it is about “break(ing) the was an art magazine edited by Anton Podbevšek that briefly tyranny of the horizontal horizon, and the vertical figure, and appeared in Slovenia in 1922. Both Rdeči Pilot and Podbevšek all the conventionalities imposed by Earth-bound existence” stand for a failed attempt to establish a literary-artistic avant- [39]. The aim is toabolish all mimetic art—and thus to realize garde in Slovenia [30]. a project that was started by the avant-garde: “Vous auriez demandé le mimétisme, nous vous aurions donné la beauté, Zero Gravity and Anti-Mimesis: vous auriez demandé l’anti-mimétisme, et vous auriez ob- The Abolition of the Horizon tenu zaoum” [40]. Transferring the theater into space, into In 1990 the group renamed itself Cosmokinetic Cabinet a dimensionless environment in which neither horizon nor Noordung. This name change reflects a conceptual change directions exist, allows for the liberation of art (and life) from within the theater collective. It indicates a rising interest in Earth-bound Euclidian geometry: “La réalisation du théâtre space travel and an expansion of its radius to outer space, en gravitation-0 doit demander la libération des lois de la time and the future. In the early 1980s, the Theatre of the Nature” [41]. Sisters of Scipio Nasica (the first incarnation of the collective) Živadinov’s 50-year project is reminiscent, in a somewhat had recorded the rise of utopia. Red Pilot, in the late 1980s, surprising way, of the 1968–1969 cooperation between art- had observed the decline of utopia. In the 1990s, Cosmoki- ists James Turrell and Robert Irwin and psychologist Edwin netic Cabinet Noordung observed neither the rise nor the Wortz in the Art and Technology program at the Los Ange- decline of utopia but rather the intent to realize the utopia of les County Museum of Art. Wortz was then doing NASA- abstract art in weightlessness [31]. commissioned research into extraterrestrial perception. The members of Cosmokinetic Cabinet Noordung are Turrell, Irwin and Wortz were interested in the function- not the first artists to deal with weightlessness and its effects ing of up/down orientation in zero gravity, in the effects of on the human body. Like that of the French choreographer (missing) acoustic stimulation, and visual perception in the Kitsou Dubois [32] and many others, their work, while be- emptiness of space. They worked with sensory deprivation longing to the discipline of “space art” [33], is also part of a techniques (e.g. Ganzfeld spheres that produce homogenous broader pop-cultural field that since the mid-1990s has been visual fields, anechoic chambers) and thus started “to experi- fascinated with space and the subject of weight- ment with the phenomenon of nonobjectivity, or, nonrep- lessness. Michael Jackson’s video Scream (1995) was the first resentationality, itself” [42]. However, it became clear that music video to use this aesthetic (it shows Michael Jackson an exterior stripped of all its sensory stimuli would become weightless in a space station); a number of similar MTV mu- an oppressive interior: “We three,” Turrell wrote in 1969, sic clips followed [34]. “are becoming intranauts exploring inner space instead of On its website, Cosmokinetic Cabinet Noordung refers to outer space” [43]. With the advent of manned space travel, the Association of Autonomous Astronauts (AAA) as one levitation suddenly became technically feasible, even if the

Arns, Zero Gravity, Anti-Mimesis and the Abolition of the Horizon 19

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_a_01377 by guest on 02 October 2021 ­realization of zero gravity as both a technical and a spiritual The cosmist principle is the no-sex-principle: Stop to make goal, as suggested by Malevich, has remained a utopia. How- sex. Stop to make new subjects. [sic] I like this idea, it is ever, recordings of radio communication between astronauts very close to my pathetic position. We always make new and ground control, consistently documenting long-lasting children, and these shitty objects always need new informa- radio silence during “free fall in orbit,” show that some spiri- tion. We need to stop making subjects. We must fight for tual dimension remains. cybernetics. And we have to fight for the resurrection of While Friedrich Nietzsche interpreted the cosmic expe- those who have been the subjects of this world. This means rience of loss of the horizon as a metaphor for the death messianism without messiah. That is a miracle without a of God [44], Suprematist interpreted the miracle. My dramaturge, for example, is physically disabled. impression of instability, emptiness, tumbling and wandering But in zero gravity you do not need legs. It is a miracle created by the loss of horizon as a liberation from the laws of without miracle. Television is the same kind of messianism Euclidean geometry, a “breakthrough into freedom, into the without messiah, because we all know the people who ap- boundless cosmic space of infinite nothingness” [45]. Ma­ pear on television. The cyber intelligentsia must select the levich’s Square destroys the fictitious, illusory space of information, because the subject has to be new, because the image, thus referring to an n-dimensional infinity beyond we must not stop having sex, because that is the reality. the 3D illusion. In that sense we can say that zero gravity However, we must fight for the Coming-back-subject [50]. also refers back to discussion of the fourth dimension [46], closely linked to the early-twentieth-century development of This “messianism without messiah” is Živadinov’s some- nonobjective (abstract) art. what “pathetic” expression of Cosmokinetic Cabinet Noor- In 1995, the Youth Theatre in Ljubljana previewed weight- dung’s retro-utopian perspective. This retro-utopianism is less non-Euclidean geometry: A spectators’ dome, built for not primarily interested in pointing to the discursive paral- the premiere of Noordung 1995–2045, consisted of a multi- lels between avant-garde and socialist (as was still the story structure in which observers lay face down, their heads case with post-utopianism); rather, it returns to a point in pointing toward the center, looking down on the heads of time before genuinely utopian ideas have reverted into trau- the actors. The shape of the dome resembled the top floor of matic experiences. Retro-utopianism approaches this point ’s Monument to the III. International (1921) not by “looking back” from today’s perspective but rather and anticipated the interior of the future Noordung Observa- “innocently” from the point of view of an avant-garde that tory (2045). The viewers’ horizontal position and the vertical still does not know anything about its future. In doing so, view allowed for a perception seemingly withdrawn from however, it is not naive (being aware of the future of uto- gravity. pia). Remembering past catastrophes, Cosmokinetic Cabinet Noordung collects the “destroyed metaphors” of the avant- Retro-Utopianism: Physics and garde’s utopias and constructs with these pieces of debris a Metaphysics of the Avant-Garde “vehicle” for a prospective reconstruction of another world The transition into cosmic weightlessness thus (re)constructs [51]. the historical intellectual axes of weightlessness. In addition, Meanwhile, the wooden construction of the dome built Cosmokinetic Cabinet Noordung’s projects increasingly link for the 1995 Ljubljana premiere had burnt down. The first the material/physical to the machine and the metaphysical repetition of Noordung 1995–2045 took place in 2005 in the (prayer) [47]. Not surprisingly, Russian artist Vadim Fish- Star City Jurij Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Facility near kin has worked as a set designer for Cosmokinetic Cabinet Moscow, in a water basin with a floating life-size model of Noordung since 1992. Besides recurring references to Rus- the International Space Station (ISS) [52]. The second repeti- sian cosmism, his work is full of obsessive combinations of tion took place 20 April 2015 (following initial submission of the physical and the metaphysical [48]. Interviewed by Oliver this manuscript)—at the Cultural Centre of European Space Marchart, Dragan Živadinov clearly refers to Russian Ortho- Technologies (KSEVT) in Vitanje in Slovenia [53]. On this dox Christian philosopher Nikolai Fedorov (1829–1903) [49], occasion, the first substitution occurred: One of the actresses, thus suggesting that he is well acquainted with the ideas of Milena Grm, had died since the previous performance, and Russian cosmism: was replaced by a robotic symbol—and melody.

Acknowledgments 1983); and the theater group Scipio Nasica Sisters Theater (founded I would like to thank Ewen Chardronnet, Mojca Puncer and an anony- in 1983)—came together to form the (NSK) mous reviewer for their comments, which helped in refining this article. art collective. Adopting the symbols, codes, appearances and dis- courses of fascism, , state power, and socialist-realist and avant-garde art, and pushing the strategies of overidentification and References and Notes subversive affirmation to their limits, NSK exposed the common foundations of various regimes, systems and ideologies, while af- 1 In 1984, three groups of artists in post-Tito Yugoslavia—the music firming that “art and are not mutually exclusive.” and multimedia group Laibach (founded in 1980, banned in Yugo- Employing music, video, , exhibitions, writing, , slavia from 1983 to 1987); the painters’ collective Irwin (founded in , theater and public relations to probe the aesthetic pos-

20 Arns, Zero Gravity, Anti-Mimesis and the Abolition of the Horizon

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_a_01377 by guest on 02 October 2021 sibilities of declining socialism and proliferating capitalism, NSK 15 Hermann Noordung, Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums— introduced an idiosyncratic version of (the retro- der Raketen-Motor (Berlin: Richard Schmidt & Co., 1929). avant-garde) into the globalizing cultural sphere. See Zdenka Ba- dovinac, Eda Čufer and Anthony Gardner, eds., NSK: From Kapital 16 Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums—der Raketen-Motor was to Capital (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2015). published in 1928. Wikipedia [12]: “The publisher, Richard Carl Schmidt, printed the year 1929 as a publishing date, probably from 2 For an analysis of the group’s names, see Inke Arns, Neue Sloweni- a purely business motive (to keep the book looking new throughout sche Kunst (NSK)—eine Analyse ihrer künstlerischen Strategien in the coming year) and this date is often mistakenly given as the actual den 1980er Jahren in Jugoslawien (Regensburg: Museum Ostdeutsche date of publication” [12]. Galerie, 2002). 17 See Ewen Chardronnet, “Mojave Epiphany: Willy Ley, Wernher 3 According to Ewen Chardronnet (private email, 19 March 2015), von Braun et la Verein für Raumschiffahrt en 1953” (8 August 2014): Dragan Živadinov’s decision could have been spurred by positive www.ewenchardronnet.com/mojave_epiphany/2014/08/willy-ley views of NSK expressed in the Russian journal Limonka, published -wernher-von-braun-et-la-verein-für-raumschiffahrt-en-1953.html by National-Bolshevik poet Eduard Limonov in Moscow in the early (accessed 5 April 2015). 1990s (Živadinov was in Moscow in the context of the NSK Embassy 18 The book was translated into Slovene only in 1986. One of the few Moscow, 1992). remaining German originals of the book, in the National & Univer- 4 Dragan Živadinov in Marina Gržinič and Aina Šmid, Transcentrala sity Library in Ljubljana, served as a blueprint for the 1993 reprint (Neue Slowenische Kunst Država v času), video, 20:05 min., 1993. by Turia+Kant. Produced by TV Slovenia/Artistic programme. 19 See the chapters “The Effect of Weightlessness on the Human Organ- ism” (p. 147) and “The Physical Behavior of Objects when Gravity Is 5 Stojan Pelko, “Dragan Živadinov: The Prayer Machine Noordung” Missing” (p. 149) in Noordung [10]. (accessed online; no longer available). 20 Noordung [10] p. 179. 6 Vladimir Stojsavljević, “Love and State/Ljubezen in Država/Ljubav i Država,” in Noordung 1995–2045: Naseljena skulptura Ena proti Ena 21 Noordung [10] p. 190. (Ljubljana: typescript, 1995). 22 Co-production of Cosmokinetic Theatre Red Pilot with the Randy 7 Editorial note in Hermann Noordung, Das Problem der Befahrung Worshaw Company (New York). The piece premiered in des Weltraums (Vienna: Turia+Kant, 1993) p. 189. Translation by the ­Kotor in July 1987. author. 23 The piece premiered at the Cultural Center Novi Zagreb in Zagreb 8 See also the video documentation by Michael Benson (VHS copy, 10 on 7 May 1988. min., 1999) as well as Michael Benson, “A Look Back at Day Zero,” 24 This performance took place in a railroad car transformed into a Syndicate mailing list (22 December 1999): www.michael-benson rocket, located at the Ljubljana train station. .net/1999/a-look-back-at-day-zero (accessed 6 February 2015). 25 There was a fourth that was planned for 1989 but was not realized: 9 In connection with the music group Laibach (NSK), Slavoj Žižek Opera Observatory Rekord. developed a psychoanalytical conceptualization of the strategy of “overidentification”: Slavoj Žižek, “Why are Laibach and NSK not 26 Delo, Ljubljana (31 January 1987). Fascists?” M’ars 3/4 (1993) pp. 3–4; see also Inke Arns and Sylvia Sasse, “Subversive Affirmation: On Mimesis as Strategy of Resis- 27 Cosmokinetic Theatre, Red Pilot, “The Founding Document,” in tance,” in IRWIN, ed., East Art Map: and Eastern Neue Slowenische Kunst, Neue Slowenische Kunst (Zagreb: Grafički Europe (London: Afterall, 2006) pp. 444–455. Zavod Hrvatske, 1991) p. 186.

10 Herman Potocnik Noordung, The Problem of Space Travel: The 28 See also Jugoslawischer Konstruktivismus 1921–1981 (Ratingen, Ger- Rocket Motor (Velenje: Cultural Centre of European Space Tech- many: Kunstmuseum Ratingen, 1984); Holger Siegel, ed., In unse- nologies/KSEVT, 2010) p. 190: http://epizodsspace.no-ip.org/bibl ren Seelen flattern schwarze Fahnen: Serbische Avantgarde 1918–1939 /inostr-yazyki/noordung.pdf (accessed 6 February 2015). (Leipzig: Reclam, 1992).

11 As quoted in Frederick I. Ordway III, “Foreword,” in Hermann 29 See Irina Subotić, “Die Zeitschrift ‘Zenit’ und die Erscheinung des Noordung, The Problem of Space Travel: The Rocket Motor, Ernst Konstruktivismus,” in Jugoslawischer Konstruktivismus 1921–1981 Stuhlinger and J.D. Hunley with Jennifer Garland, eds. (Washington, [28] pp. 12–20. D.C.: NASA SP-4026, 1995): www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History 30 On Rdeči Pilot, see Janko Koš, “Slowenische Literatur und historische /SP-4026/foreword.html (accessed 6 February 2015). Avantgarde,” in Europäische Avantgarde, Peter V. Zima and Johann Strutz, eds. (Frankfurt/Main, 1987) pp. 71–85, here pp. 76–77. On 12 According to the Wikipedia entry on Herman Potočnik, “The mean- the Slovenian and the avant-garde in South Eastern Europe, see Igor ing of his German-like pseudonym Noordung is still a mystery, but Zabel, Breda Ilich-Klančnik, eds., TANK! Slovenska Zgodovinska some suggest that he used it to show the problems of chaos (German: avangarda (Ljubljana: Moderna galerija, 1998); and Reinhard Lauer, Ordnung, ‘order’; ordunga in Slovene colloquial language). Assuming ed., Die literarische Avantgarde in Südosteuropa und ihre politische that the initial ‘N’ may have been intended to stand as a negation, und gesellschaftliche Bedeutung (Munich: Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, the name would mean ‘without order’ or ‘no order’ ”: en.wikipedia 2001). .org/wiki/Herman_Potočnik (accessed 5 April 2015). 31 See Dragan Živadinov, “Le problème du voyage spatial,” in Quitter la 13 Wikipedia [12]: “The book was translated into Russian in early gravité: Anthologie de l’Association des Astronautes Autonomes, Ewen 1935, Slovene in 1986 (by the Slovenska matica), English in 1999 (by Chardronnet, ed. (Nimes 2001): www.lyber-eclat.net/lyber/aaa/the NASA) and Croatian in 2004 (by Marino Fonović, published by La- ater.html (accessed 27 January 2015). bin Art Press). A partial translation in English, containing most of the essential chapters, was made as early as 1929 for the American 32 Dubois is a pioneer in the field of parabola flights. See Kitsou Du- magazine Science Wonder Stories and was issued in three parts (July, bois, “Dance and Weightlessness: Dancers’ Training and Adaptation August and September 1929).” Problems in Microgravity,” Leonardo 27, No. 1, 57–64 (1994).

14 J.D. Hunley, “Preface,” in Noordung [11]: www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/His 33 Seminal texts on space art have been written by Frank J. Malina, tory/SP-4026/preface.html (accessed 6 February 2015). Roger F. Malina, Arthur Woods and Annick Bureaud. Other publica-

Arns, Zero Gravity, Anti-Mimesis and the Abolition of the Horizon 21

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon_a_01377 by guest on 02 October 2021 tions include Douglas Davis, Art and the Future: A History/Prophecy 48 See Inke Arns, “Machines of Potentiality: About Angels, Metaphys- of the Collaboration between Science, Technology and Art (London: ics, and Parallel Realities in Vadim Fishkin’s Works,” ArtMargins Praeger, 1975). (2 December 2002): www.artmargins.com/index.php/8-archive/313 -machines-of-potentiality-about-angels-metaphysics-and-parallel 34 See Ricky Seabra, “The ISADORA Module: A Design Study for an -realities-in-vadim-fishkins-works (accessed 6 February 2015). and Habitability Studies Module for the International Space Sta- tion (or Everything Space Engineers Wanted to Know about Artists 49 Nikolai Fedorov’s major work, Philosophy of the Common Task but Were Afraid to Ask)” (master’s thesis, Design Academy Eind- (1906), discusses the abolition of death, the resurrection of the dead hoven, 2002): www.rickyseabra.com (accessed 27 January 2015). and the total transformation of the world as the common task of all humanity united. See Michael Hagemeister, Nikolaj Fedorov: Studien 35 Ewen Chardronnet, ed., Quitter la gravité. Anthologie de l’Association zu Leben, Werk und Wirkung (Munich: Sagner, 1989) p. 60. des Astronautes Autonomes (Nimes 2001): www.lyber-eclat.net/lyber /aaa/theater.html (accessed 27 January 2015). 50 Dragan Živadinov, quoted in Oliver Marchart, “Neue Slowenische Staatskunst: Über Subversion, Identität und Pluralistischen Totalita- 36 Rob La Frenais, “Interview with Dragan Živadinov,” Fallout #1: The rismus”: www.manoafreeuniversity.org (accessed 6 February 2015). Space Programme, no longer available online. 51 Birringer [47] p. 149–150. 37 Živadinov [31]. 52 Lorraine Millot, “Dragan Zivadinov invente le théâtre strato- 38 See [8]. sphérisé,” Libération (22 April 2005): https://next.liberation.fr 39 Benson [8]. /arts/2005/04/22/dragan-zivadinov-invente-le-theatre-stratospher ise_517394 (accessed 6 February 2015). 40 Živadinov [31]. 53 KSEVT website: www.ksevt.eu (accessed 9 June 2015). See also Marie 41 Živadinov [31]. Lechner, “Le Ksevt, vaisseau spécial,” Libération (19 September 2012): https://next.liberation.fr/design/2012/09/19/le-ksevt-vaisseau-spe 42 Christoph Asendorf, Super Constellation—Flugzeug und Raumrevo- cial_847476 (accessed 5 April 2015). lution: die Wirkung der Luftfahrt auf Kunst und Kultur der Moderne (Vienna and New York: Springer, 1997) p. 326. Manuscript received 10 March 2015. 43 Craig Adcock, James Turrell: The Art of Light and Space (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990) p. 76. Inke Arns, PhD, is director and curator of HMKV (Hartware 44 Friedrich Nietzsche, Werke, Vol. 2 (Munich: Hanser, 1967) p. 732. MedienKunstVerein) in Dortmund, Germany (www.hmkv.de). 45 Boris Groys, Gesamtkunstwerk Stalin: Die gespaltene Kultur in der She has worked internationally as an independent curator and Sowjetunion (Munich: Hanser, 1988) p. 91–92. Translation by the author. theorist specializing in media art, net cultures and Eastern Europe since 1993. After living in Paris (1982–1986), she studied 46 See Linda Dalrymple Henderson, The Fourth Dimension and Non- Russian , Eastern European studies, political science Euclidean Geometry in (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1983). See also Larissa A. Zhadova, Malevich: Suprematism and and art history in Berlin and Amsterdam (1988–1996) and in Revolution in Russian Art 1910–1930 (London: Thames and Hudson, 2004 obtained her PhD from Humboldt University in Berlin. 1982). She has curated many exhibitions at home and abroad and 47 Johannes Birringer, “The Utopia of Postutopia,”Theatre Topics6 , No. is the author of numerous articles on media art and net cul- 2, 143–166 (September 1996) p. 146. ture and editor of exhibition catalogues. See www.inkearns.de.

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