Michael Najjar (born in 1966 in Landau) is a German artist, explorer and Future Astronaut.Michael Najjar - outer space, Distanz, Berlin 2014 He lives and works in Berlin.Michael Najjar - outer space, Distanz, Berlin 2014. His work spans photography, video, digital image-making, and sculpture. He works closely at the intersection of art, science, and technology, and takes a critical look at the technological developments that are defining and drastically transforming the early 21st century.Michael Najjar - outer space, Distanz, Berlin 2014.
Life and education In 1993, Najjar graduated from the Berlin Bildo Academy of New Media ArtsTIME Magazine: Rachel Lowry, A photographer's Quest for Outer Space, March 16, 2016, an institution that placed a strong emphasis on photography, video, and computer technology as forms of artistic expression. Its philosophical framework drew from thinkers such as: Vilém Flusser, Paul Virilio and Jean Baudrillard. Najjar has lived and worked in Brazil, Cuba, Spain, England, Japan and the United States reflecting the international orientation of his practice.WIRED Magazine: Alyssa Coppelman, Training to Become the First Civilian Artist in Space, August 6, 2015 Najjar was a Hasselblad Ambassador from 2012 – 2017 and was nominated for the Prix Pictet in 2018, 2019 and 2025. In 2019, he was shortlisted for the Sony World Award and invited as a guest artist of the CERN physics laboratory. He held the ACAF residency (Australian Chinese Art Foundation) in 2024.
Najjar was also one of Virgin Galactic's first astronauts and is expected to fly into space aboard the VSS Unity.ART Magazine: Camilla Péus, Michael Najjar - Weltansichten, May 2013
Work (selection) Michael Najjar's photographic and video works draw on an interdisciplinary understanding of art, fusing art, science, and technology into visions of future social structures shaped by the impact of cutting-edge technologies.Kunstforum International, Globale ZKM Karlsruhe, Issue # 237/2015
Najjar's work is organized in thematic series and his interdisciplinary practice frequently involves collaborations with scientists, researchers, and engineers. Themes explored across these series range from transformation of global megacities through compaction of information networks ("netropolis" 2003-2006 / 2016 ongoing), to depictions of the human body transformed by biogenetic intervention ("bionic angel" 2006-2008)Kunstforum International, Michael Hübl: In Para-Metaphysischer Trance, Issue 203, September 2010 the virtualization of financial markets through algorithmic trading ("high altitude" 2008-2010) and the future of the human species through space exploration ("outer space" since 2011). Since 2021, Michael Najjar has been working on a new series entitled "cool earth", which explores the future of the planet in the context of climate change focusing on the Anthropocene, climate engineering and the relationship between humans and nature.
The performative aspect has become a fundamental part of Najjar's working process. A defining feature of his practice is the way it is informed by direct hands-on experience; the artist described the experience as "living through" the situations that provide the leitmotifs of his art as central to his work.Andreas Beitin: A Question of Perspective, in: Michael Najjar - outer space, Berlin 2014 For decades, Najjar has undertaken journeys and expeditions around the world, with many of his projects stemming from fieldwork in remote and often difficult to access locations. He has climbed seven-thousand-metre peaks, scaled skyscrapers, trekked active volcanoes, crossed glaciers, descended into ice caves, traversed deserts, and undergone intensive astronaut training. To create his images, Najjar exposes his body to extreme conditions, testing his mental and physical limits within challenging natural or technological environments.
cool earth Michael Najjar's latest work series "cool earth" (2021 ongoing) deals with our planetary future in times of climate change as well as with the role of new climate technologies. It addresses the far-reaching ecological, economic and cultural impact of human-induced climate change, which leads to a fundamental redefinition of the relationship between humans and nature.Drama des Schreckens und der Schönheit. FAZ, 15. April 2021 In the new epoch of the Anthropocene, humans have become the major transformative force in the Earth system, which is increasingly reaching its limits. Humans are now altering nature for hundreds of thousands of years into the future; the natural environment is being transformed into post-natural landscapes, the technosphere envelops our planet and is expanding increasingly into outer space. The synthesis of the technical and the natural will be decisive for the future of our planet.
In view of the dramatic consequences of climate change for future generations, technical, aesthetic, and cultural new perspectives are needed. Topics such as geoengineering, weather manipulation, terraforming, satellite-based Earth observation, biophilic architecture, new energy sources and transport systems, as well as urban future designs, are at the center of the "cool earth" series. It raises the question of if and to what extent technologies can help us shape the planetary future — and what price we will have to pay for it. Scientists are increasingly discussing the possibilities of large-scale technical interventions in the natural Earth systems, known as climate engineering: targeted technical interventions in the Earth’s geo- and biochemical cycles, the oceans, soils, and atmosphere. outer space Michael Najjar's work series "outer space" looks at the latest developments in space research and their far-reaching impact on life on Earth, in near-Earth orbit, on the Moon, and other celestial bodies.Kunstforum International, Issue 237/2015 In recent years, technological innovation has led to a dynamic expansion of human activity in outer space. This evolution brings civilizational, ethical, and geopolitical questions into focus, demanding a new discourse on humanity’s expansion beyond our home planet.
The cultural dimension represented by emerging space technologies is central to Najjars's work, exploring the knowledge such technologies may offer about the universe, their impact on space travel, and their potential influence on the way humans live and work on Earth.The Sense of Movement. When Artists Travel, Ostfildern, 2015
All of the works are digital collages based on Najjar's photographs. They not only document but also interweave documentary and fictional scenarios to create visionary depictions of current and future space exploration.
The ongoing series started in 2011 with the final launch of the American Space Shuttle AtlantisLukas Feireiss, Memories of the Moon Age, Leipzig 2015 and currently includes 73 photographic artworks and 6 videos. The artist has visited the most important space centers, like the Kennedy Space Center and Starbase in the US, Star City in Russia, the Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana, and the German Aerospace Center. In close dialogue with scientists, engineers, and astronauts, he gained access to global research facilities developing next-generation spacecraft, rockets, satellites, and telescopes.
In Chile's Atacama Desert, he photographed some of the world’s most powerful telescopes, perched on remote Andean plateaus. In China, he documented the world’s largest radio telescope, hidden deep in the forest. In Iceland, he explored the concept of terraforming through his lens. At Starbase in Texas, he captured the first test flight of the revolutionary Starship; in the White Sands desert, he photographed Virgin Galactic’s spaceplane. At NASA, he portrayed the legendary James Webb Space Telescope during its early development, and at the Human Robotics Center in Edinburgh, he focused on future humanoid Mars robots. On Svalbard in the High Arctic, he visited the world’s northernmost satellite station; in New Zealand, he descended into the crater of an active volcano; in Switzerland, he gained access to the world’s largest particle accelerator at CERN. He is currently documenting the mission of the latest exoplanet finder in Germany and the Netherlands.
Michael Najjar, one of the early participants in Virgin Galactic’s astronaut program, is scheduled to take part in a future spaceflight aboard VSS Unity. If the flight proceeds as planned, he is expected to become one of the first artists to travel into space.Financial Times Weekend: Jamie Waters, Snapshot - liquid gravity (2013) by Michael Najjar, 6/7 June 2015
In preparation for this flight, Najjar underwent an intensive astronaut training program at Star City (GCTC),El País Semanal, Un artista en el espacio, April 2, 2016 Russia, at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the National AeroSpace Training And Research Center (NASTAR) in the US.The Wall Street Journal: Andy Battaglia, Space Art - Photographer Trains for the Final Frontier, New York, March 31, 2016 Pushing both mental and physical limits, he subjected himself to a demanding series of training modules: a stratospheric flight in a MiG-29 jet fighter,Smithsonian Magazine: Marissa Fessenden, An Artist Imagines the Future of Humans in Space, March 24, 2016 zero gravity flights, high-G centrifuge tests, underwater training in a space suit, and a HALO parachute jump from 10,000 meters. The photographic and video material collected during these extreme experiences often forms the basis of his later image compositions.Sueddeutsche Zeitung Magazin: Till Krause, Michael Najjar - All Inklusive, January 31, 2014
Najjar's "outer space" series also includes a compilation of contemporary visions of future life and work in space. These visions, inherent in the actual artworks, were commissioned by the artist and formulated in a series of 'vision statements' written by leading figures in space exploration, science, architecture and philosophy, including Buzz Aldrin, Richard Branson, Tim Smit, Michael Lopez-Alegria, Anousheh Ansari, Norman Foster, and Stephen Hawking.Michael Najjar - outer space, Distanz, Berlin 2014
Works from the "outer space" series have been exhibited internationally in numerous museums, biennials and galleries. In 2017, the series was nominated for the prestigious Prix Pictet. Two comprehensive publications on the series were published by the publisher DISTANZ Verlag, Berlin, in 2014 and 2021. In addition, Michael Najjar published "Planetary Echoes" with Spector Books – a collection of essays on the future colonization of our solar system. The work has been widely covered in numerous articles. The “outer space” series is ongoing and expands by three to four new works each year.
netropolis The series "netropolis" moves the aesthetic exploration of the megacity into the 21st century.Michael Najjar, netropolis, Berlin 2006 Najjar traveled around the globe and climbed – often evading the security guards – the highest towers of twelve megacities. At first glance, these large-format black-and-white photographs show a panoramic view of the city, combining all four cardinal directions in a single image. The high angle and bird's-eye view transform the vastness of the city into an abstract landscape, while the reduction of the high horizon to a narrow strip tilts the image into a horizontal plane. At the same time, however, the picture forces viewer’s to continually switch perspectives between near and far, between micro and macrostructures, since the vibrant nature of the city is grounded in the correlation between closeness and distance.
The result is an interwoven texture that exhibits expansions, compressions and reconstructions of time and space, which Najjar conceptualises as allegories of the abstract infinite data horizon of our megacities.