"Of all flowers, the rose evokes both the artificial and the poetic, both passion and fragility. Submitted in laboratory conditions to the atmosphere of Mars, the rose died. Mars is not the B612 asteroid in The Little Prince and, in its cylinder reminiscent of a space probe, the flower reminds us that space is a place of death."  

Annick Bureaud and Jean-Luc Soret, Curators, Festival @rt Outsiders 2009, (In)Habitable? L'Art des Environments Extremes
 

The Martian Rose, Bios 4: Arte Biotecnológico y ambiental,  Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC), Seville,  May - September 2007.
 

The Martian Rose (2007/9) explores extreme environments and life beyond terrestrial settings. Using a planetary simulation chamber, roses were exposed to Martian environment for six hours at the Mars Simulation Laboratory, University of Aarhus, Denmark on 27th March 2007 for the exhibition Bios 4: Arte Biotecnológico y ambiental at the Andalusian Contemporary Art Center in Seville, Spain and again on 1st and 2nd September 2009 for the exhibition (Un)Inhabitable? - Art of Extreme Environments at the European Museum of Photography in Paris, France.

The Martian Rose, Festival @rt Outsiders 2009, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France

What would Mars do to a rose?

The Martian Rose is an artistic investigation into boundary conditions of life beyond Earth's environment.

martian rose, unsafe distance, stone bell house, prague, czech republic

The work bridges an experience of inaccessible spaces by exposing living roses to the hostile atmosphere of Mars.

Before exposure Mars Simulation Laboratory, University Aarhus, Denmark, September 2009

Arriving directly from the Mars Simulation Laboratory, we encounter a rose that has been subjected to Martian environment for six hours in temperatures below -60°C, atmospheric pressure of only a hundredth of Earth's, prevalence of carbon dioxide and UV light penetrating unshielded. 

Roses seconds after exposure to Martian atmospheric parameters mars simulation laboratory, university aarhus, denmark, september 2009

The project poetically negotiates scientific spaces selecting a rose not for its resilience to these harsh conditions but rather for its important cultural value and a prelude to a more intensive engagement with Mars.

Roses during exposure to martian atmospheric parameters mars simulation laboratory, university aarhus, denmark, March 2007

The Martian Rose aims to open discourses and communicate ideas of what we are left with and reflect on both the Martian atmosphere and how technologies are used to simulate these spaces.

C-LAB, The Martian Rose (video), 2008

The work carries the romantic idea of giving a rose to Mars and its encounters with extreme climate, a rendezvous of science and culture.  

Acknowledgements:

The experiment was conducted at the Mars Simulation Laboratory, University of Aarhus, Denmark in March 2007 and September 2009.  We would like to express our sincerest gratitude to Dr Jon Merrison. Our special thanks to Dr Per Nørnberg, Professor Nigel Mason and Professor Charles Cockell.

Supported by a grant from . 

A new edition of the work has been supported by the @rts Outsiders Festival 2009.

We initially presented the Martian Rose proposal at the opening launch of The Arts and Genomic Centre, University of Leiden in 2005.