Michael Najjar

08 June, 2022

Arctic expedition

In May 2022 Michael Najjar went on an adventurous expedition into the high Arctic. The artist was on board of the expedition ship MS Villa and traveled for 10 days along the west coast of Svalbard high up to the 80th degree of latitude until reaching the pack ice coming from the North Pole. The challenging expedition was part of the artist's new series "cool earth" which deals with our planetary future in times of climate change. New artworks based on the shooting in the Arctic will be released soon.

The Arctic is the epicenter of climate change. No other part of our planet is warming up as quickly, and the changes are already dramatic. At the same time, the Arctic is the area of our planet that we understand the least. Svalbard is the fastest warming place on the planet. Climate change is happening here in fast motion, between 1971 and 2017, the average temperature on this archipelago, less than a thousand kilometers south of the North Pole, rose by 4 degrees celsius. On average, winters have become almost ten degrees warmer over the past 30 years. It is likely to happen that the Arctic will soon be completely ice-free in summer.

Why are temperatures warming faster in the Arctic than the rest of the world? Because of a process called "polar amplification". The loss of sea ice is one of the most important reasons. When bright and reflective ice melts, it gives way to a darker ocean; this amplifies the warming trend because the ocean surface absorbs more heat from the Sun than the surface of snow and ice. Losing sea ice reduces Earth’s albedo, the lower the albedo, the more a surface absorbs heat from sunlight rather than reflecting it back to space.

The melting process of glaciers has shot up by a fivefold over the past four decades and is now accelerating exponentially. The polar regions have lost 28 trillion tons of ice mass in the past 30 years. Since the global temperature will continue to rise, continuation of this melting process is inevitable. If critical tipping points are reached in the polar region, this could lead to the collapse of the massive ice sheets.

The expedition was organized by Secret Atlas, the company is specialized in small ship polar expeditions. The artist wants to thank especially Andy Marsh and Michele D'Agostino, founders of Secret Atlas, as well as the whole crew of the MS Villa for their fantastic support during this epic expedition.

Arctic expedition

Art Basel Miami Beach

new artwork "arctic streams"

Exhibition views Fotografiska Stockholm

Solo presentation at Paris Photo

Exhibition at Fotografiska Stockholm

Residency at Shanghai Museum of Glass

Lecture Astronomy Museum Shanghai

DEEP PURPLE - Scientific Expedition to Greenland

Exhibition at Kunsthalle Bahnitz

flashback: UKE Hamburg

new artwork "netropolis | shenzhen | 2024"

Interview with Space Ambition

new artwork "CDF-X"

Exhibition JUT Art Museum, Taipei

new artwork "fusion power"

ARCO Madrid

Exhibition "A Constant State of Transformation", Melbourne

Podcast "FotoPsychoLogisch"

Symposium "Enter the Future"

Exhibition at Caixa Forum, Madrid

Exhibition at ArtScience Museum, Singapore

"orbital ascent" special edition

Exhibition at BANK Gallery, Shanghai

Podcast "Fotografie neu denken"

Michael shoots at ITER Fusion Ractor in France

Nanjing Artfair, China

Wired UK magazine

Ars Electronica Festival - Who owns the truth?

Final test flight of Spaceship Unity

Civilization exhibition at Saatchi Gallery, London

Michael at the Starbase

new artwork "starbase II"

ART SG Singapore

"cool earth" exhibition at Studio la Città Gallery

Screening at COP27

Lecture at Deutsche Museum München

CIVILIZATION exhibition at Museo San Domenico

Frieze Seoul

Galería Juan Silió presents "cool earth" exhibition

New series "cool earth"

New Artwork "starbase"

mission:space re-edited version

new artwork "down to earth"

Michael visits STARBASE

New book "outer space v2"

Exhibition at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg

Historic Spaceflight of VSS Unity

"Overview Effect" exhibition at Museum for Contemporary Art, Belgrade

Solo Exhibition "outer space" in Beijing

National Air and Space Museum aquires 3 artworks for permanent collection

New publication "Space is the Place - Current Reflections on Art and Architecture"

"outer space | portfolio box 2020" is now available

"New Classics of Mountains and Seas" Exhibition at Zhejiang Museum, China

"FUTURO" exhibition at Galleri d'Italia, Vincenza

"Space Works" exhibition at Tampere Art Museum, Finland

"CIVILIZATION" at Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand

new artwork "crew dragon"

Large scale mural "lunar explorers"

skype interview with curator Benjamin Weil

new artwork "ascension"

"terraforming" video on view at Studio National des Arts Contemporains

VSS Unity spaceship transferred to Spaceport America

new artwork "space renaissance"

Video interview on "outer space"

"Beyond the Horizon" - exhibition at Wittenstein Innovation Factory

"outer space" exhibition opens in Shanghai

"terraforming" exhibition at Galería Juan Silio, Spain

New artwork "lunar explorers"

Photo shooting at CERN

new artwork "ignition"

"intergalactic" exhibition at BNKR in Munich

SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch

Shooting of Soyuz rocket launch in French Guiana

CIVILIZATION exhibition opened at the UCCA Beijing

Lecture at the European Space Research and Technology Center

A Bright Future - New Scientist magazine publicates the artwork "synlight"

VSS Unity - Welcome to Space !

Opening of the epic landmark exhibition „CIVILIZATION“ at Museum MCA, Seoul, South Korea

Shooting at European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC)