Powerful software is now available that makes it possible to recreate the map of the sky on a given date, seen from any location on the earth's surface. The Day Before_Star System is a series of twelve starry skies, reproduced in IGN format, each one viewed on the night before an aerial attack on civilian populations, from Guernica (26 April 1937), via Hiroshima (% August 1945) to the Twin Towers (9/11). Each one indicates the place, the date and the time, juste before the grim historical event.
These heavenly vaults all look pretty much identical. They tempt us to admire the serene beauty of the stars, on which man projects the imaginary lines of the constellations, and which he likes to read as a theatre of presages. But the starry skies of The Day Before_star System have a grim historical resonance. They speak of the tragedy to come. They tell of war, violence an death, but without showing them. They recall a moment when everything was still possible, and yet when everything had already been decided. The score is in place, it is just that some people know and some do not know.
12 star systems :
The Day Before_Guernica_April 25, 1937_23:59 ;
The Day Before_London_September 6, 1940_23:59 ;
The Day Before_Coventry_November 13, 1940_23:59 ;
The Day Before_Caen_Junes 5, 1944_23:59 ;
The Day Before_Dresden_February 12, 1945_23:59 ;
The Day Before_Hiroshima_August 5, 1945_23:59 ;
The Day Before_Nagasaki_August 8, 1945_23:59 ;
The Day Before_Hanoi_December 17, 1972_23:59 ;
The Day Before_Halabja_March 15, 1988_23:59 ;
The Day Before_Baghdad_January 15, 1991_23:59 ;
The Day Before_New York_September 10, 2001_23:59 ;
The Day Before_Baghdad_March 18, 2003_23:59.
Catalogue Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil : "Include me Out", MAC/VAL Museum Edition