Sonia Leimer’s exhibition Space Junk tackles a rangeof issues linked to the concept of space in all its ambiguityand different nuances. The artist plays with the utopianmood of the 1960s and 70s by appropriating the “spaceagedesign” of the period in a series of works. She alsoreferences humanity’s constant yearning to conquer newvital spaces and search for life on other planets in a videothat focuses on a research project in Antarctica. In thesame video, however, Leimer also addresses the dystopiaslinked to climate change, and with sculpturesinspired by “space waste,” she not only highlights the failuresof space research but also the growing pollutioncaused by digitalization. It may seem like a paradox, butour daily actions on this earth are increasingly steeredand influenced by the monitoring equipment and systemsthat humankind has sent into orbit and which then partlyreturn to earth as wrecks and scraps.

There is also another space: that of the museum inwhich the artworks are exhibited. In the 1960s, MichelFoucault defined heterotopias as spaces for alternativepossibilities, which include museums. The museum istherefore an “alternate” space, a space of possibility, aspace for thinking and imagining other dimensions.In 2020, accessing cultural locations through theWorld Wide Web and social media has taken on newimportance. But at the same time, and paradoxically,frequenting art galleries online, including museums, hasraised our awareness of the intrinsic potential of thesephysical spaces.