Esther Hunziker
EHB 5866

EHB 5866 is the fictitious galaxy of the Basel artist Esther Hunziker, which consists of a hundredfold superimposition of a single real photograph of the Mars moon Phobus. Rather than around the red planet, the layers of the celestial body’s image rotate around themselves in changing constellations. In a bound, synchronous rotation that corresponds to the movement of the real Mars moon, the individual image layers with their major differences in scale generate an immense picture depth. The multiple gradations of the same image that float before our eyes allow us to constantly compare the characteristics of the moon’s surface and form structures. In this way, the image penetrates the retina in a more intrinsic way than the original photograph taken by the European Space Agency (ESA) ever could. Chus Martínez aptly describes this attribute of Hunziker’s fictitious worlds as the enabling of a new, broader understanding of physical qualities or qualitative processes of the real within a new, digital reality. 

(Text: Bettina Back)