ARNO GEENS

I create art in outer space. Working across visual art, research, and spaceflight, I explore the creation of culture beyond Earth. My works live in orbit and beyond, aboard rockets, spacecraft, and the International Space Station. By engaging with both the conditions of space and the human infrastructures that enable access to it I investigate how art changes when it leaves Earth, and what these emerging forms of cultural activity mean for our evolving relationship with space.

Beyond the studio, my practice grows in two directions. 
As co-founder of The Spacecraft agency and The Foundry - Orbital Art Lab, I design and build the frameworks to curate artists and practitioners in space-bound cultural projects.
And as founder of the Astronautical Art Initiative I research and archive our artistic heritage in space to document and share the stories about our spacefaring culture, and bring together artists, scientists and cultural experts to bring the argument for culture into the international space community.

I am the co-chair of the Committee on the Cultural Utilization of Space at the International Astronautical Federation, a 2024 Karman Pioneer and a member of the Oxford Space Initiative and the Social Studies of Outer Space Networks.

I was a visiting researcher and visual strategist at NASA JPL’s The Studio, and program director, lecturer and researcher in design and new media technologies at the RITCS School of Arts and Erasmus University College in Brussels. I ran a design studio and a contemporary art gallery.