Marieke Coppens | the day I bought a telescope it was clouded

Marieke Coppens, in collaboration with the archive of the anonymous scientist (A.W.), performs twelve daily performances, or a reenactment of a rite of passage.

A.W.’s favorite lunar eclipse took place on August 30, 1765, at 15:55, and was the second largest lunar eclipse since the 14th century. It has never been clarified where and how A.W.’s love for this lunar eclipse originated. The unusual space-time annotations have not yet been deciphered. What is clear, however, is that Marieke Coppens’ performance can only begin at that exact time.

Remnants of a chalk rite, notes by the shaman who performed the chalk rite, overhead projectors, sun-protective materials, and the mutated garments from A.W.’s expeditions to natural and unnatural geometric figures, along with other excavations from A.W.’s archive, form part of the presentation and performance. For the costume, Coppens used the sleeping bag with sky-blue lining in which A.W. intended to observe many astronomical phenomena. Most of the time, it was cloudy.

In the shaman’s notes, alongside the floor plan of the chalk rite, the quote “If every single day, at exactly the same stroke of the clock, one were to perform the same act, the world would change.” was found. This quote also appears in the opening scene of Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice. It is therefore highly likely that Tarkovsky himself underwent the chalk rite. The origin and destination of this rite of passage have been lost. What is clear, however, is that the chalk rite can only be performed during a lunar eclipse.

Out of respect for the shaman, the performance will take place thirteen to twenty-four days after the total lunar eclipse of March 3, 2026.

Since 2018, Marieke Coppens has been working with A.W.’s archive, which was bequeathed to the visual arts after his sudden death.

The exhibition and the daily performances also mark the starting point of a new artist’s book, expected to be published sometime within the next decade.

Image: Marieke Coppens, the day I bought a telescope it was clouded, elke dag exact dezelfde handeling.