Michael Najjar Exhibition Review by Artnet

In late September, coinciding with the PhotoFairs Shanghai art fair, BANK Gallery on Anfu Road hosted German artist Michael Najjar’s first solo exhibition in China. The artist was also featured at the fair, where his *Ignition* (2019)—the only work displayed at the booth—sparked considerable discussion. The piece precisely captures the moment a Soyuz rocket lifts off from its launchpad at Europe’s Spaceport. With an unimaginable shooting angle and ultra-high-definition texture, the work conveys a powerful contradiction between acceleration and stillness, as well as the precarious duality of success and failure existing in a single instant. When staff mentioned that Michael Najjar is set to become the first artist to travel to outer space next year, even more curiosity and attention were drawn to the booth.

The solo exhibition at BANK Gallery presented a more comprehensive display of his latest series, *outer space* (2011–present), featuring mostly photographs and video works. The entire series explores the latest advancements in global space exploration while critically examining our relationship with emerging 21st-century technologies.

Descending the stairs into the underground gallery space, the first thing that catches the eye is a digitally composited triptych depicting a moon landing. Nearby, Michael Najjar himself—armed with a Hasselblad camera—is photographing the exhibition, his meticulous adjustments of the equipment mirroring the posture of the astronauts in the lunar images.

Najjar has divided this series roughly into five thematic sections: *The Body in Space*; *Transportation Vehicles*; *Space-Based Renewable Energy*; *Astronomical Exploration*; and *Terraforming/New Worlds*. In each, he unlocks the potential of images by continuously reconstructing time and space, crafting visions of our future lives on Earth, in outer space, and on other planets.

Notably, while all the photographs in the exhibition are presented as static and silent, they seamlessly intertwine with the immersive experience created by the echoing soundscape of the video work *Orbital Cascade 57-46*. This interplay invites viewers to imagine themselves in the vastness of future space. Even after leaving the underground gallery and stepping back into sunlight, the deep, cosmic reverberations linger in the mind—leaving one eagerly anticipating Michael Najjar’s upcoming journey into space as an artist.