Alpha Omega features a space helmet in a vitrine with the image of chimpanzees reflected on the shield of the helmet by means of the Pepper’s Ghost optical illusion. The ghost-like figures tap, probe and trace the surface, their gestures both curious and reserved, evoking humanity’s oldest, instinctive inquisitiveness, the same drive that once led our ancestors to cross their own boundaries in search of new landscapes or in pursuit of the cosmos. Within the helmet, barely visible, lies the shadow of a human skull – a memento mori tying the work to the inevitability of mortality. Interwoven images of past and future, and life and death form a visual riddle, linking the first tentative mappings of the unknown to the grand ambitions of space exploration. The work both celebrates and questions the human urge to discover, suggesting that the pursuit of knowledge is overshadowed not only by triumph and glory but also by risk, error and hubris. It proposes that every voyage outward carries with it the specter of return and the possibility of final disappearance.

(Dalma Kovács)