Our Place in Space —Wunderkammer & Our Celestial Bodies

Nive Widauer's artistic work (to the right) focuses on the relationship between the microcosm of our planet and the surrounding macrocosm of space — and vice versa. The installation "Wunderkammer/Challended" unites an Art Deco showcase full of personal collectables that documents Widauer's lifelong fascination with space. It provides a museum-voyeuristic insight into the artist's very private exploration and palpation of her relationship to space, its meteorites, stars, and planets.

With Our Celestial Bodies (background left), the artist Daniela Brill Estrada explores the similarities between human and cosmic bodies — the origin of those elements that connect us humans with the Universe. The installation offers an alternative approach to the scientific concept of the formation and arrangement of chemical elements. These are captured in a cloud of 200 small glass bottles representing all the elements in various states and hanging in front of the Pillars of Creation. The artistic work deals with the chemical similarities and at the same time questions the differences between the individual reality of the viewer and the universe, its origin, beauty and size.

This art was on display in the Hubble travelling exhibition Our Place in Space in Vienna.