Tintin Wulia: 1001 Martian Homes

Gaining and taking a chance to be featured in the prestigious Biennale Arte 2017 in Venice, Tintin Wulia contemplates recurring patterns in history regarding human movements through time, places and space to re-imagine the meanings of ‘borders’, ‘space’, ‘time’ and ‘connectivity’.

Tintin Wulia constructs a matrix of stories within a story based on an imagined future. Named 1001 Martian Homes, the exhibition takes place in two identical constructed sets in Venice and Jakarta. Each set houses three interrelated installations each of which corresponds to each other in real time, via a system of internet-connected cameras and video projections. Visitor participation is one aspect that interlaces 1001 Martian Homes entirely.

The Not Alone is a pair of internetworked machines, resembling a 1001-piece puzzle in the shape of a 2 meter in diameter dome composed of thousands of hexagonal modules made of laser-cut clear acrylic, electronic cables which include electroluminescent wires, and processor boards bearing 228 glowing LEDs arranged across the dome to represent the constellation of Sagittarius. The constellation is well known as the supposed source of the infamous “Wow!” signal detected in 1977, a mysterious narrowband radio signal,which was considered the strongest evidence of intelligent extra-terrestrial life. In the set, wandering in close range to each machine activates a series of motion sensors, which are connected to specific parts of the dome. Lights then appear at random at first glance, but then they reveal the outlines of three different constellations, each depicting the words “WE”, “ARE”, and “NOT ALONE” in mirror reverse. At the same time, surveillance cameras in both machines record footage of their immediate environment between them, but visitors will not be able to see themselves immediately, only strangers on another continent who simultaneously wander around the counterpart machine.

Under the Sun is a site-specific installation featuring a stairway leading to a hidden room on the floor above and embedded in the architecture of both sites. The stairs in Venice are painted red and those of its twin in Jakarta blue – a reference to the Mars’ tricolor flag designed by NASA scientist Pascal Lee and inspired by Kim Stanley Robinson’s hard science trilogy. Lining the walls of each stairway are circular cutouts in various sizes showing randomly changing video images of human eyes, which are recorded through the peephole on a locked door by the end of the stairs. The eyes visitors’ see belong to those who peep through the peephole in the other city.

The third project, A Thousand and One Martian Homes comprises a series of short stories, recounting personal stories and family histories, often relating to hardship and survival in a new land. The “interview subjects” relate accounts of how Mars was gradually made habitable by terraforming, telling how a pioneer community of enslaved people was forcibly taken from Earth to Mars as laborers. Originating from different backgrounds, they are kept under hard labor conditions and enforced isolation, urged to find a way of living. Between stories, the fourth wall is broken by a fleeting recursive video image revealing viewers at both exhibition sites. This recursive image is streamed live through surveillance cameras while a soundtrack can also be heard in the background.