Cosmonaut 1001
Inkjet print on archival paper, 100×70 cm, 2011
The photograph Cosmonaut 1001 is an ironic celebration of internationalism. A white dove has landed on the head of an infant child in a space suit, its sewn-on badges suggesting affiliation with countries previously on opposite sides of a divide, Capitalist and Communist. The image feels borrowed from a TV commercial designed to convince us of a dream which anyone’s money can buy: the Cold War is over, globalization of space is a reality and even infants can fly. Cosmonaut 1001 is produced for the exhibition After the Flight curated by Iara Boubnova and dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the first human flight in outer space. It was presented at the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), Sofia, 2011.