Tom Sachs – Space Program: Mars is an exciting extraterrestrial exploration

It’s hard to try and describe something that’s so painstakingly epic that it’s hard to digest, but I’ll give it a go. This morning, outside the It’s Nice That offices by the Nike 1948 space, a queue of very cold, determined people sat in deck chairs wrapped in sleeping bags. What were they waiting for? Some shoes. Which shoes? Tom Sach’s collaboration with Nike, released to mark the opening of his super-hyped show Space Program: Mars happening at this moment in New York.

The show, an immersive installation erected in an enormous space at the Park Avenue Armory, will allow visitors to witness a typically meticulous display of replica NASA paraphernalia including “exploratory vehicles, mission control, launch platforms, suiting stations, special effects, recreational amenities, and a Mars landscape”, the intricacy and absurdity of which Sachs hopes will mirror the complexity of the culture surrounding space missions. Throughout the duration of the show, Sachs and a close-knit team of 13 will demonstrate procedures of take-off, landing and generally the actions necessary when going about leaving one planet and landing on another.

Take a look at the images and the short trailer released, then take a look at the Nike collaboration sartorial merchandise (much of which is made from actual space-suit fabric) and tell me that this isn’t the show to end all shows.