Mars is a symbol of the alien, a metaphor of otherness. “Continuum” by Félicie d’Estienne d’Orves is a film of a sunset on Mars made in homage to seminal electronic composer Éliane Radigue (b. 1932). Her hour-long immersive installation, based on images of the Red Planet taken by NASA probes, shows the sun setting to the score of the French musician’s “Trilogie de la Mort”.

This Martian landscape evolves into different colour stages, unfolding a sky going from reddish orange to greyish blue, the reverse of what we see on Earth. Éliane Radigue’s minimalist piece, which is played out as if in one breath, is redolent of the monochromes of Color Field artists. “Continuum” plays with the idea of optical and cosmic illusion: on Mars as on Earth, the sun never sets. 

Sean Rose