Mass and Individual Moving
The Pioneer is a huge, portable wooden printing press powered by solar energy. It made its debut on Friday, 8 May 1981, at the international cultural centre ICC in Antwerp – home of the sixteenth-century Plantin-Moretus family of printers. The machine can make prints of 1.20 by 7 meters and weighs about 350 kg. It is designed by Raphael Opstaele, Pierre Gonay, Xavier Looze, Barbara Hahn, Jean-Claude Desclin and Savino Falcone. The name refers to the Pioneer spacecraft project launched by NASA in the 1970s, with the goal of building the first engine capable of leaving the solar system.
The Pioneer is a huge, portable wooden printing press powered by solar energy. It made its debut on Friday, 8 May 1981, at the international cultural centre ICC in Antwerp – home of the sixteenth-century Plantin-Moretus family of printers. The machine can make prints of 1.20 by 7 meters and weighs about 350 kg. It is designed by Raphael Opstaele, Pierre Gonay, Xavier Looze, Barbara Hahn, Jean-Claude Desclin and Savino Falcone. The name refers to the Pioneer spacecraft project launched by NASA in the 1970s, with the goal of building the first engine capable of leaving the solar system.
The Catholic University of Leuven, Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT) supports the project with two photovoltaic panels of 4 m², the power needed to drive the electric motor. Raphaël Opstaele designs a new font and writes the first slogan printed by the Pioneer, that will be displayed during each exhibition: 'Nulla est verae creationi Patria', which is translated by ORAS itself on its website as 'De ware schepping is stateloos' – True creation is stateless.
Eight author-poets living in Antwerp are invited to print a poetic slogan. It is a public event where the authors sign and the public gets prints to take home. Each time, one copy is also mounted on a panel and protected with transparent plastic foil. The poems will be exhibited this way for a month in the courtyard of the ICC. Participating poets are Patrick Conrad, Rudy De Rybel, Paul De Vree, Gust Gils, Herman Hobbit, Nic van Bruggen, Marcel van Maele and Eddy van Vliet.
From 1981 to 1983, the Pioneer enjoys growing success. MAIM is invited to all kinds of artistic, literary and cultural events in Amsterdam, Haarlem, Graz, Osdorp, Middelburg, Utrecht, Hamburg, Arles, and Bergen. In January 1982 they invite Flemish poet Marcel van Maele to travel to the desert with the Pioneer.
Like MAIM's other large sculptures, the Pioneer is kept on long-term loan at the Verbeke Foundation in the Belgian commune of Kemzeke.
