The much anticipated new exhibit at the Wende Museum will open tomorrow, November 7, 2026 and the sky is (just barely) the limit.
Looking up – there is a Sputnik hanging from the ceiling. Not a representation, or a replica – on of the two actual satellites that launched the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States. It’s an ideal example of how the Wende works; framing an idea, and then filling the frame with things that are all relevant and connected – and just totally cool.
The Wende, which is the largest collection of Cold War artifacts in the U.S., has been enlightening and educating Culver City for almost 25 years. As the founder and executive director Justin Jampol likes to put it, “It’s kind of a crazy idea…but it gives us the scope to get into a lot of stuff.” The new exhibit, brilliantly curated by Joes Segal and Emma Diffley of the Wende and guest curator Lois Rosson opens up the history of space exploration, space inspired art, and alien interactions from several perspectives. Using the entire gallery space, they offer art works created in 1940’s when space travel was an impossible dream to the ephemera of the Soviet dogs that were launched to test the concept.
And a Sputnik.
Beginning with the concept of Russian Cosmism, a philosophy that considered space stations and interstellar travel as a way to care for the human race after the resurrection, this unique theory that combined the teaching of Russian Orthodoxy with the innovation of human life continuing in space actually inspired a great deal of investment from the Soviet Union.
The galleries are filled with amazing art, thought-provoking films and several QR codes that allow visitors to play with their own space (and time) travel.
Combining contemporary art in conversation with artifacts, films, and archival materials, there are more than 170 works that show how space science from the Cold War to today has inspired artists in the East, the West, and the Global South.
Artists in the show include Pyotr Belenok, Nuotama Bodomo, Chesley Bonestell, Beatriz Cortez, David van Eyssen, Bettina Forget, Chitra Ganesh, Mark Steven Greenfield, Lia Halloran, Jitish Kallat, Paul Laffoley, Alexei Leonov, Aaron Samuel Mulenga, Truong Minh Quy, Sun Ra, Leo Raudys, Ionel Talpazan, Fedir Tetyanych, and Li Tianbing.
Opening day starts with a curator-led tour at 12 p.m. Opening speeches and a reception in the garden follow at 2 p.m. RSVP to join us on opening day.
Competing Cosmologies is on view through October 17, 2027.
