ARNO GEENS
Arno Geens explores outer space
As a multi-mission space artist, designer and independent researcher I explore creativity and culture beyond our world.
I create artistic and cultural projects in outer space. My art has been taken into orbit and beyond on satellites, on the International Space Station, and will travel to Mars and the Sun to examine how artistic and cultural expression can evolve in space. My works encourage us to rethink our anthropocentric relationship with the cosmos.
As co-founder of The Spacecraft agency and The Foundry - Orbital Art Lab, I design the tools and frameworks to engage and curate artists and practitioners in space-bound cultural projects.
Beyond the studio, my practice grows in two directions.
As founder of the Astronautical Art Initiative I research and archive our artistic heritage in space to document and share the stories about our shared spacefaring culture.
And as co-chair of the Committee on the Cultural Use of Space (ITACCUS) at the International Astronautical Federation I bring together artists, scientists and cultural experts to bring the argument for culture into the international space community.
Arno Geens, FRSA (b.1978, Belgium) is co-chair of the Committee on the Cultural Utilization of Space at the International Astronautical Federation, a 2024 Karman Pioneer and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. He is the founder and curator of the Astronautical Art Initiative, a non-profit organisation archiving our shared artistic heritage in space, and of The Foundry, the first Orbital Art Lab in low Earth orbit. He holds an MA in Graphic Design & Multimedia (LUCA School of Arts), an MSc in Space Studies (International Space University), and a PgD in Philosophy & Cognitive Science (VUB Brussels). He is a Smart Space alumnus, University of Oxford.