Michael Najjar

13 February, 2017

Photo- and video shooting in Iceland

Michael Najjar and his team have just returned from a three week photo- and video shooting in Iceland. The spectacular footage they shot forms the raw material for new artworks on terraforming and climate change. Terraforming is the process whereby a hostile environment, i.e. a planet that is too cold, too hot, or has an unbreathable atmosphere, is altered to make it suitable for human life. This could involve modifying its temperature, atmosphere, surface topography, and ecology. The artificial creation of a sustainable ecosystem on a lifeless planet like Mars is a fascinating vision that might one day guarantee our survival as a species.

The new artworks will be presented for the first time at the upcoming exhibition "Planetary Echoes" at the Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung Berlin in April this year. In 1938 German photographer and filmmaker Alfred Ehrhardt undertook a two-month photo and film expedition across Iceland. This adventurous journey led him into untouched "primal landscape" shaped by glaciers and volcanoes, where he hoped to gain insights into the origins of the Earth. Accompanied by Dieter Jaufmann, Michael Najjar filmed and photographed many of the same locations that Alfred Ehrhardt visited almost a century ago. Ehrhardt’s goal of discovering the Earth´s origins is paired to the most existential question of the 21st century: saving the Earth’s future.

Production Team
Production company: Pegasus Pictures, Reykjavik
Pegasus organisation: Bryn Birgisdóttir
Video camera operator: Dieter Jaufmann
Mountain guide: Stefan Mantler
Technical support: Hasselblad, DRS Berlin

Photo- and video shooting in Iceland

Michael Najjar nominated for Prix Pictet

Greenland Expedition documentary

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

Arctic expedition

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"