ESA Astronaut meets space photographer in Wolverhampton, 13 March

 ‘Impossibility to Manage the Infinite’, a project produced in collaboration with ESA, can be seen from 7 February to 2 May. The official opening of the exhibition will take place on 13 March at 18:00 which includes a special talk with the artist and Jean-François. This special evening is open to the public and entrance is free.

Jean-François shared with Edgar a number of personal effects during his photographic campaign, which will, for the first time in the UK, be included in the exhibition.

The personal space-flown objects include Jean-François' now 'infamous' Rubik's cube - which was celebrated in Alfonso's Cuaron's movie 'Gravity' - and his lesser known but just as interesting 'Pokemon cards'.

In 2012 and 2013, Edgar Martins was granted unparalleled access to ESA establishments and those of its partners, spanning some 20 facilities not usually accessible to the public in the UK, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Russia, Kazakhstan and French Guiana. ESA’s objective in the agreement with the artist is to use art as a means to reach out to segments of the public who might otherwise not be aware of European space activities.

Variously capturing test centres, robotics departments, space simulators, laboratories, launch sites, astronaut training centres and satellite assembly rooms, the photographs were shot in long exposures of up to one hour using a 10 x 8 inch/ (25 x 20 cm) large-format camera.

Their clean composition and hyper-real sharpness contrast greatly with the veils of secrecy or obscurity that can often shroud space-related activity.

The exhibition is free and The Wolverhampton Gallery is open Monday to Friday from 10:00 - 17:00.

Edgar Martins

Born in 1977 in Évora, Edgar Martins grew up in Macau (China). He moved to the UK in 1996, where he completed an MA in Photography and Fine Art at the Royal College of Art. Recent exhibitions include the 54th Venice Biennale, PS1 MoMA (New York), the Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian (Paris), The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation – CAM (Lisbon), EDP Foundation (Lisbon), Centro Cultural Hélio Oiticia (Rio de Janeiro), The New Art Gallery (Walsall), The Gallery of Photography (Dublin) and The Wapping Project Bankside (London). His work can be found in numerous public, private and corporate collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), the National Media Museum (Bradford, UK), the Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, USA); the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), Carmignac Foundation (Paris), amongst others. Edgar Martins works and lives in the UK.

Jean-François Clervoy

Jean-François Clervoy, ESA astronaut from France and Brigadier General from DGA (Defense procurement agency), was born in Longeville-lès-Metz on November 19th 1958. He graduated from Ecole Polytechnique, Paris in 1981, from Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace, Toulouse in 1983 and from Flight Test School, Istres in 1987. Seconded from the DGA, Clervoy was selected as an astronaut in 1985 by the French space agency CNES and then in 1992 by the European Space Agency.

He served as a mission specialist twice aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-66 to study the atmospheric, and on mission STS-84 to re-supply the Russian space station Mir, and as a flight engineer aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-103 to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. He has logged 28 days and 3 hours in 439 earth orbits.

Since 2001 Clervoy works as senior advisor astronaut for the ESA human space flight programs including the ATV-Jules Verne project to re-supply the International Space Station. Still active in the European astronaut corps, he works also as Chairman of Novespace, a company which organizes parabolic flights with its airbus ZERO-G for microgravity research.

Clervoy holds qualifications as a private pilot, skydiver and scuba diver. He is member of several organizations for the promotion of space exploration and for the preservation of planet Earth.