The objective of cultural initiatives settled in the framework of astrophysics and astronomy is to share the unbelievable pleasure of discovering and following common paths in both domains, in the science of space and in the arts. This way scientific heritage can be passed over, thanks to the artists, with the language of creativity. This is the main idea, the “fil rouge” woven into the structure of the projects signed by Design of the Universe: to highlight this concept by means of innovative stage settings.
Israeli architect and artist Uri De Beer, disciple of Joseph Beuys and Bruce Goff, has been occupied for more than twenty years with the particular connections between art and science. De Beer is open towards the entropy of visions to find a cross point between the scientific thought and the alchemy of making art, a very ambitious challenge to unite scientific research in the field of astrophysics, mostly in quantum mechanics, with the studies of human science and with the contemporary practice of artistic action, philosophy and religion.

De Beer’s authentic manner is digital painting printed on canvas to narrate the origin of the Universe. The imagery of his works is made of texts extrapolated from the first chapter of the Genesis and contemporaneously mixed with microscopic parallel worlds, with the geometry of fractals in nature, pictures of human brain activities, of human cells and nanotechnology, to join in the end Hubble’s telescopic photography and space photography in general. By and by this space reference has become his primary source of inspiration, not to forget the studies of fractals that opened to the artist unconfined and unlimited perspectives.
In De Beer’s canvases one may perceive a fusion between the biggest and the smallest dimensions where the most distant worlds and the closest ones constantly approach each other. Fractals enter the canvas like mysterious elements between our world and the uncountable parallel worlds around, above and beneath us. Also the morphology of De Beer’s space architecture is determined by the connection with the shapes of nature. The spheres and curvy forms represent elements associated to an organic natural order that always hides a lot of mysteries.

In this conceptual framework the “Space City” tale came into being, the prototype of a future housing nucleus that testifies the artist’s credo rather based on growth than on mechanic construction. Among the most important iconological shapes in architecture and in art De Beer prefers biomorphic geometries. This loans in the domain of biology corresponds to his idea of architecture as a living organism. It may be considered the maximum of organicity of the biological universe, obtained with the maximum of technological artificiality.

The small selection of “Space City”, showcased at Villa Burzino on the occasion of the “Festival dello Spazio” represents Uri De Beer’s homage to Man’s desire to be part of the universe.
Beth Vermeer, July 2019