• THOMAS RUFF
• Cassini 31, 2009
• C-print
• 106,5x108,5 cm
• Edition of 6

The series Cassini could be referred to the Romantic obsession with vertical travel, traversing the earth’s surface from both above and below. It is a nocturnal journey or vol de nuit. Ruff makes typical use of previously elaborated graphic material for this explanation in the form of the vast archive of photographs taken by space observatories and their formidable visual tentacles, telescopes and probes. NASA website has an archive of black and white images of Mars. The photographs were taken with the HiRISE system (High Resolution Imaging Science Experience), which has been developed since 2006 by the University of Arizona. The artist was fascinated by the high-definition image of the planet, through which every minimum variation on its surface can be seen despite the distance. Ruff has thus not only had to analyze and select specific images, but also reworked them, endowing the photographs with a different meaning to that of their normal scientific function.