During the "Rencontres de Ciel et Espace" which took place in Paris in November 2021, onMARS had the pleasure of meeting the CASSIOM gallery which exhibited art and curiosity objects inspired by the Cosmos. 

Since the highest antiquity the cosmos fascinate the Man. 

What child has not been absorbed by its magic? What adult has not felt a shiver in front of its immensity? 

Associated with the mystery of the night, it is at the origin of the most ancient myths and great scientific discoveries. There is no doubt that the cosmos inspires artists and gives them the inspiration and freedom to dream.

It may be useful to reconsider artistic and scientific innovation in the light of theories of emergence, such as the one put forward by Henri Atlan and readily adopted by Hubert Reeves to describe the organization of matter on a cosmic and human scale. On the scale of the infinitely vast, the scientists illustrated how "the cosmos has metamorphosed from its initial state of chaos to the richly structured state it is today", thanks to the many "creative encounters"

Today, art and science are closer than ever

Scientists need artists to communicate their discoveries and knowledge to people who are not necessarily scientifically literate.

Artists also use science as a source of inspiration for their creations, since it allows us to explore new concepts. The cosmos is becoming a popular source of inspiration for designers and artists who seek to create objects that remind us of the great cosmos beyond the atmosphere of our planet.

The boundaries between scientific knowledge and art are blurred

Both fields depend on the imagination to explore new horizons. Space being infinite, it inspires deep feelings in people's hearts... so many reasons to create art or curiosity objects inspired by the cosmos.

CASSIOM was created thanks to the passion of its founder Florent Le Scornet and his designers for the beauty hidden in the infinite dimensions of space and by their common penchant for creativity.

CASSIOM is a platform created to promote art and curiosity objects inspired by space. 

These artworks will be exhibited during special events open to the public. Visitors are invited to discover these artists as they can also become collectors of these unique pieces.

The latest territory of conquest, space has never been so accessible. For the ultra-rich it is already a destination and for the scientific community the subject of fascinating research programs.  But paradoxically, it lacks objects of representation that are both accurate and sensitive. 

CASSIOM fills this gap. At the crossroads of astronomy, design and art, the young company designs and publishes in France art and curiosity objects inspired by the Cosmos. 

Behind CASSIOM, there is the dream of a man. 

After a career at Sony Electronics, Florent Le Scornet started a second professional life as an artist. To calculate his new trajectory he questioned his passions.  Astronomy stood out like a red thread stretched since childhood. Deeply marked by the mythical series of the 1980s Cosmos by Carl Sagan, he ranks among the erudite amateurs, on the lookout for the latest discoveries.

Between Fos-sur-Mer and Dubai, under skies worthy of the Odyssey, with only his computer and his camera as companions, he sharpens his ideas and finally sketches objects. It is his way of taking down the stars and aiming at them, to share with as many people as possible the fascination they hold for him.

The first sketches become models validated by the French Association of Astronomy.  Because it is above all a question of supporting a scientific purpose. But the objects still lack seduction. 

Jean Louis Azizollah, image strategy consultant and founder of Carré Noir, intervenes at this moment. He shares with him his sharp eye for shapes.

The intervention of a designer is essential at this stage of the project 

He suggests Ludovic Roth, still associated with Studio Arro. He too has a childhood dream hanging on the stars that he entertains every summer under the Ardèche sky.  

But his approach is above all pragmatic.  Feasibility, potential suppliers, materials... before proposing a design, he confronts the idea with the principle of reality.  When the first prototypes are finally presented to Florent Le Scornet, he feels the emotion of a birth. 

Lux Tempora

299 792 458 meters per second is the speed at which a photon, the fundamental particle of light, travels. It will take only 8 minutes to cross the 150 million kilometers separating the surface of the sun from the earth. 4h12l to touch the giant Neptune, the most distant planet from our star. 

The Lux Tempora astronomical clocks faithfully reproduce the path of light in the solar system and materialize the time needed for a photon to touch each of the eight planets that make up the solar system. 

Constellation

Since the first astrologers, constellations have been familiar figures in our imagination. Cleared of all folklore, the scientific eye represents them as a series of points that illustrate the apparent position of the stars as seen from the earth. The Constellation collection, CASSIOM offers a new model of the constellations of the zodiac. 

Data Sculpture

Data Sculpture reconciles astronomers and astrologers.  In an abstract, but no less significant format, these fantastic topographies made of Limoges porcelain represent in an original and exact way the 12 constellations of the zodiac.

Each edge of these volumes illustrates a star of the constellation. Seen from above, the edges draw the pattern of the constellation as we know it.  But the height of the edges restores the distance that separates each star from the sun, it is unprecedented. 

Saturn by Rolf Zweifel

The planet Saturn with its ring system of ice and dust is considered the jewel of our solar system. Known since prehistoric times, it is the most distant planet observable to the naked eye and is regularly visited by space probes. Recently, its beauty has been magnified by images from Cassini Huygens. 

When Florent Le Scornet met Rolf Zweifel, he wanted to give birth to an original representation in order to put it forward while paying tribute to the astrophysicist André Brahic. 

More than a year later, following meticulous research and experimentation, Rolf Zweifel has concretized a very personal approach, in a unique, mineral and astonishing work: The infinitely small grains, blocks of ice and dust making up the rings of Saturn, rub shoulders with the infinitely large of this planet nine and a half times larger than our planet Earth. 

On the Moon by Luc Billières

The moon rocks our nights and the dreams of all astronomers. When on July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first man to step on the moon, the whole of humanity held its breath. To return to this founding moment of the conquest of space, Cassiom has commissioned the artist Luc Billières to create an original series of sculptural paintings that recreate the lunar soil. 

Luc Billières delivers an incredibly sensitive artistic representation that transports us to the gates of Space: the impression of treading the Selene soil, a singular sandy dust, both gray and arid, inhabited by imaginary craters. It makes you feel close to the Earth while preserving its strangeness. 

To know more about it ==> Cassiom