SPACE

"Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious." — Albert Einstein

We have always looked to the starry skies above and wondered what is out there. Space represents the aspiration to transcend both the ground beneath our feet and the limits of ourselves — an attempt to step into the unknown, a dream of living among the stars. It encapsulates both the curiosity and excitement of discovering something new, and the timeless questions about who we are and where in this enormous vastness we belong. The universe is a never-ending source of fascination, inspiration and profound inquiry.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Curated by Fotografiska, the group exhibition SPACE: A Visual Journey started its trayectory in Stockholm, traveled to Tallinn, and now arrives in Shanghai in a new iteration titled SPACE: Internal Illuminations. Co-curated by Fotografiska Global Exhibition Director Johan Vikner and independent curator Iris Long, the exhibition will be on show at Fotografiska Shanghai from 12 November 2025 to 8 March 2026. It explores the celestial frontier where artistic expression meets scientific inquiry, capturing the grandeur of the cosmos through the interpretive visions of artists.

SPACE: Internal Illuminations

Albert Einstein used the phrase "internal illumination" to describe human sentience — the capacity to connect perception with emotion, transforming experience into intuition and meaning. He believed that without this internal illumination "the universe would only be a pile of dirt."

Inspired by this idea, the exhibition channels artistic meditations on the cosmos—from echoes of ancient myth and religion to visions of future space travel — the 20 artists and artist groups in this exhibition offer deeply personal journeys through diverse media such as photography, video, and installation that will, we hope, awaken the illumination within each of us.

Scientific Vision & "Internal Illumination"

The exhibition is conceived in three chapters that take the viewers on an immersive journey from the vastness of the macrocosm to the intimacy of the inner self. Photography has been described as a technology that "pierces the darkness". In Camera Obscura & Camera Lucida of the Cosmos, artworks are situated within the history of astronomical imaging, serving as interpretive bridges that explore the tension between darkness and light, mechanical objectivity, and imagination. As the perspective shifts to The Dissolution of Earthly Coordinates, artists' critiques of space-based infrastructure, resource competition, and interplanetary colonization reveal human fragility in the absence of familiar reference points, prompting reflection: As our physical home recedes, where will the human spirit find its anchor? Finally, in Internal Illuminations, art becomes the ultimate developer: embroidered star maps intertwine with personal memories, Indigenous myths quietly converse with deep-space data, and the cosmos, once "disenchanted" by rationality, is "re-enchanted" through human emotion and imagination.

Perhaps the ultimate purpose of exploring the universe is not to arrive at a cold truth, but to return to and understand ourselves in a more profound way. Here, the delicate interplay between scientific vision and "internal illumination" resonates once more.

As Einstein noted, "Human perception is the inherent light in the model of scientific explanation." When science transforms invisible spectra into digital images, art becomes another language for interpreting the cosmos.

In this exhibition, the universe is both a grand camera obscura and the ultimate light chamber. We gaze at the stars, and in doing so, gaze at our own reflection, and witness how our own "internal illumination" transforms the boundless cosmos into a radiant panorama of the human mind.

Participating Artists:

Brooke Holm

Cecilia Ömalm & Göran Östlin

Chen Yin-ju

Darya Kawa Mirza

Fu Hongshuang

Gao Yujie & Megan Smith

Jen Bervin & Charlotte

Lily Hibberd

Xin Liu

Michael Najjar

Matjaž Tančič

Mónica Alcázar Duarte

Mikael Owunna

Ming Wong

Minna Långström

Shi Zheng

Shireen Taweel

Thomas Vanz

Vincent Fournier

ZHANG Wenxin

With Special Thanks: NIPPON CHINA