Interactive “Planet of Humans” Installation by Julijonas Urbonas Wows Visitors at the Venice Architecture Biennale

“You can travel to one of the planets now”: Impressions of Julijonas Urbonas’ Cosmic Architecture Project

“Julijonas Urbonas’ ‘Planet of Humans’ is a dizzying and terrifying vision of the future,” says art critic, curator, and writer Laima Kreivytė. Until February 25, the Lithuanian National Museum of Art invites visitors to one of its branches – the Museum of Applied Arts and Design – to experience the interactive installation that captivated visitors at the Venice Architecture Biennale. The installation has also impressed those who visited it in Vilnius.

In collaboration with the Lithuanian Space Agency (LEA), artist Julijonas Urbonas presented the project “Planet of Humans” at the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale. A few years ago, this hypothetical planet took shape in Melbourne’s Science Gallery in Australia, and since last spring, the interactive installation can be visited in Vilnius. The artwork, donated to the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, has been visited by over ten thousand people, including representatives from various disciplines, scientists, and experts.

“I am pleased that Julijonas Urbonas’ ‘Planet of Humans’ has attracted significant attention in the special space of the Old Arsenal. The installation invites reflection on urgent issues of climate change, creativity, and ingenuity, or simply to experience the artwork and become part of it by playfully immersing oneself in a virtual future planet,” says Dr. Arūnas Gelūnas, Director of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art.

“Our bodies are the building material of a future planet. Perhaps this always happens, and after death, we do not go to heaven or hell but to another planet? However, this planet made of humans can be visited right now by anyone. It’s worth a try!” shares L. Kreivytė. In her LRT Classic radio show “From the Balcony,” the art critic compares this vision of Urbonas’ “Planet of Humans” with an interwar idea by Kazys Pakštas to relocate Lithuania to Madagascar: “Pakštas’ vision lacked ambition; Lithuania should have been sent to space right away,” jokes L. Kreivytė.

One of the rooms in the Museum of Applied Arts and Design currently houses the LEA laboratory. Here, visitors are invited to enter a specially programmed scanner device and scan themselves in a chosen choreographic pose. The three-dimensional scans are transferred to an astrophysical simulation of one of the Lagrange points in space, and on nearby screens, visitors can see the forming clump and themselves as co-creators of a new celestial body.

According to Dr. Gytis Dudas, a virologist at Vilnius University’s Life Sciences Center, there aren’t many art projects that allow you to become part of them. “Planet of Humans” invites you to defy Earth’s gravity, think about space and time, and ultimately surpass yourself and become part of a larger whole in various senses. Depending on the data cleaning frequency, those who scanned themselves with friends from abroad last summer are probably still orbiting and have become part of the largest entity in the project – the Planet of Humans. It’s worth visiting. It’s worth joining. It’s worth orbiting,” says G. Dudas.

Though the project encourages contemplation of current aesthetic, ethical, and political issues related to space, it also touches on questions of architectural imagination. According to architect Andrius Ropolas, this interactive installation gives new, extreme meanings to the currently discussed topic of humanizing the environment in the field of architecture: “Now, when everyone talks about cities for people, architecture for people, everything for people, Julijonas Urbonas says in this context – then let’s build a planet out of people? – thus proposing the highest possible level of environmental humanization and humanity.”

Science popularizer and educator Goda Raibytė-Aleksa calls Urbonas’ projects true science fiction: “I have always been fascinated by Julijonas’ work – especially his ability to combine science and art, creating utopian and dystopian concepts that pleasantly ‘tickle’ the brain. When ‘Planet of Humans’ arrived in Lithuania, I hurried to the exhibition to experience it myself. I loved the implementation, the opportunity to become part of the forming hypothetical planet. If one day ‘Planet of Humans’ becomes a reality, we will all participate in it. I especially recommend it to those who find space distant and uninteresting – I am sure that after this exhibition, you will want to read and learn more.”

Visitors are invited to explore how this astrophysical fiction would be realized and briefly forget their earthly nature by transferring their bodies into cosmic nothingness until February 25.

Curator and Artist: Julijonas Urbonas

Architects: Isora x Lozuraityte Studio for Architecture (Petras Išora and Ona Lozuraitytė)

Modular Structure Designer: Vladas Suncovas

Graphic Designers, 3D Scanner Programmers: Studio Pointer* (Asya Sukhorukova and Jakob Schlötteris)

Producer: Mindaugas Reklaitis

Ticket Machine Programmer: Andrius Mikonis

Project Prototype Designer: Paulius Vitkauskas

Partner: Vilnius Academy of Arts

Information Partners: LRT, Mediatraffic

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Julijonas Urbonas is an artist, designer, researcher, and engineer, founder of the Lithuanian Space Agency. He has also served as Vice-Rector for Art at the Vilnius Academy of Arts and was the director of the Klaipėda Amusement Park. For over a decade, working across critical design, amusement park engineering, performative architecture, scenography, and kinetic art, the artist has created various projects exploring gravitational aesthetics. By manipulating gravity, Julijonas creates concentrated visions and prototypes of unrealized phenomena, offering extreme experiences that affect the body and imagination. He has exhibited his works in Lithuania and abroad, receiving such accolades as the prestigious Award of Distinction in Interactive Art at Prix Ars Electronica 2010. Julijonas’ works are held in private and public art collections.