Vernissage

 In the MSG-3 blog post, "spin me a colourful day", we already talked about Shunyam. This Dutch artist enriched the MSG programme since the very beginning with joyful paintings, posters, stickers, pads... Her pictural motives were used on many Public Relations (PR) items during the four campaigns. Today we invite readers of this blog to a premiere: A dedicated exhibition showing for the first time, next to each other, all the paintings she specially made for each MSG spacecraft.

• MSG-1 - In this first painting, a satellite floats in a light purple sky. On the coast, cut along a diagonal line, palm trees and flowers stand up on the foreground looking at this funny bird. The figurative composition obviously evokes the French Guyana coast with its exotic flora. The simplicity of the drawing, the balance and harmony between the various objects, the warm colours contribute to the happy atmosphere of this painting.

MSG-1 Launch campaign painting (120x120) and logo, 2002

ESA

• MSG-2 - This second painting is the pendant of the first one as it is based on the same concept (diagonal line between land and sea, two dominant yellow and blue colors…), the spacecraft is playing this time with the local fauna: two colored exotic birds, a large turtle carried by a wave and few fishes. Again, the staging of this merry company around the spinning satellite gives the impression of  harmony and balance in a dynamic context.

MSG-2 Launch campaign painting (120x120)/logo, 2005

Private collection

• MSG-3 - The seven years between MSG-2 and MSG-3 launches may explain the difference of the third composition with the two preceding ones. This painting is structured along the median lines of the canvas (water level and split of the banks). Two large opposite toucans  encourage with their open beaks the spinning spacecraft. Even the fishes, pulling their heads out of the water surface, seem to enjoy to the show. The three blue Morpho butterflies, Palm trees, Red gingers, Heliconia flowers remind the colourful peculiarities of the French Guyana coastal landscapes with an evident touch of reality.

MSG-3 Launch campaign painting (120x120)/logo, 2012

ESA

• MSG-4 - This fourth painting introduces new comers: crocodiles and lizards. They are running here and there in a a kind of excitation mode. But is this hectic movement caused by joy or fear? The show takes place on the land. Large leaves, flowers, large animals, butterflies positioned in all directions render this composition very dense. This is amplified by the lack of perspective of the drawing. By contrast to this "Earth chaos", the upper part of the painting  is filled with a light blue area giving an impression of quietness. In this peaceful sky, MSG-4 floats alone over this agitated scenery. It is almost gone... and already envisioned its new horizons. It is time now to greet for the last time its Guyanese friends.

MSG-4 Launch campaign painting (120x120)/logo, 2014

ESA

•  Bonus - This MSG painting made in 2014 was judged too abstract by management for becoming a logo to illustrate further PR items. Indeed, realistic echoes of French Guiana have completely disappeared here. Instead, a multiple interaction of a simplified shapes (cylinders and circles), produces a surprising texture which may trigger multiple interpretations: The beginning of an old super 8 amateur movie, Professor Calculus' experiment on a Colour TV set in Marlinspike Hall, a rain of stars, the bubbles of "space champagne", the forever production of full (Earth) disk images, a new theory of colours?…whatsoever, we leave readers' imagination to see this Shunyam's last MSG work their own way!

MSG and the Alph-art ? (120x120), 2014

ESA