African Artists for Development (AAD), EUMETSAT and Arianespace have decided to cover Ariane 5 with the image of a piece of art created by an African Contemporary Artist to celebrate the launch of the Meteosat Third Generation satellite which will contribute to meteorological observation of the African continent.
The African Space Art Project (ASAP) is the first artistic exploration of space.
The African Artists for Development (AAD) NGO has implemented ASAP in partnership with Arianespace, Eumetsat and the World Meteorological Organization.
This project was born out of a fact : Africa is the continent that produces the least CO2 but suffers the greatest from climate change. In 2021, an Ariane 5 launcher will put a new EUMETSAT geostationary weather satellite into orbit over Africa to monitor climate and weather changes on the African continent. ASAP enhances the strategic importance of such a launch for the whole continent. To do so, the Ariane 5 fairing will be cover with an image of an artistic creation from a contemporary African artist. This will embody a historical move of the contemporary African creation serving the continent’s future.
An Artistic Committee composed of 4 personalities from the world of arts will choose 3 laureates among a hundred invited artists. The Jury, composed of representatives of AAD, EUMETSAT, Arianespace and personalities from the cultural world will then select a winner. The final laureate will have a 2-month residency to create the work that will be reproduced onto the Ariane 5 fairing.
The Artistic Committee met on March 4th 2020 in Paris
100 contemporary artists from all over the African continent have been invited to participate in
AAD and EUMETSAT announce their partnership and the ASAP program at Abidjan forum on September 24th of 2018
On September 24th of 2018, the partnership between African Artists for Development (AAD) and EUMETSAT
