Laura Skehan Tecnica: Photo Anno: 2021 Dimensione: 75cm x 50cm Descrizione: is a photograph I took while reflecting on the geological relationship between Iceland and the Moon. I was particularly drawn to identifying rocks such as basalt and breccia—materials that are present on both bodies. Iceland, with its sparse and silent terrain, feels otherworldly. It’s no coincidence that its landscape was used to train Apollo astronauts, offering a striking analogue for the lunar surface. The title, Plus lourd que l’air (“heavier than air”), is inspired by 19th-century French photographer Félix Nadar, who took the first aerial photograph. Fascinated by air travel, Nadar commissioned Le Géant, a giant hot air balloon that influenced Jules Verne’s novels Five Weeks in a Balloon and From the Earth to the Moon. Together, Nadar and Verne founded La Société d’encouragement de la locomotion aérienne au moyen du plus lourd que l’air—The Society for the Encouragement of Air Travel by Means of Machines Heavier than Air. In thinking about Iceland’s fiery origins and its geological connection to the Moon, I’m drawn to this uncanny material bond: the Moon, a ‘floating’ rock tethered to Earth by gravity, shaping our tides and, in turn, the formation of basalt. This work explores a mysterious, unknowable relationship—one we can never fully grasp through observation alone. There’s something profound in that not-knowing, in the vast timeline of geological and hydrological forces that shape both worlds beyond our experience.