m111-the liminal nebulae, 2026
wool, ceramic, titanium, wood, site-specific installation, 1.20 x 1.30 x 2.50 m.

In the 18th century, the French astronomer Charles Messier, known as a comet hunter with at least 13 recorded comet discoveries, decided to compile a catalogue of nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies in order to avoid the distractions caused during his observations by other indistinct celestial objects and to facilitate their easy and immediate distinction from the comets he was primarily searching for. The original catalogue reached 103 entries, and although Messier did not add any new objects before his death in Paris in 1817, he left notes containing additional observations, which were incorporated into the catalogue at a later date. As a result, the Messier Catalogue today ends with M110.

M111 is proposed as the imaginary continuation of this catalogue, an object discovered after two centuries of silence, without the use of a telescope yet through the collective human imagination. It belongs to the category of emission nebulae, meaning that its glow results from the ionisation of the gas cloud by stars located within or near it.

By examining the spectra of nebulae, astronomers can determine their chemical composition. Most emission nebulae consist of approximately 90% hydrogen, with the remainder comprising helium, oxygen, nitrogen, and other elements. This chemical composition, along with the degree of ionisation of the gases, also determines the colours that are observed. The predominance of hydrogen often produces red or pinkish hues, while the presence of elements such as oxygen can produce bluish or greenish tones. Colour, therefore, functions not only as an aesthetic characteristic but also as an indication of the physical processes taking place within them. In M111 specifically, colours are not treated as fixed characteristics of a celestial body, but as indications of matter undergoing continuous transformation.

Nebulae either originate from gas and dust expelled by the explosion of a dying star, such as a supernova, or constitute regions where new stars are born. M111 is situated within this transitional condition. It is a nebulae formed from the remnants of stars that have already ceased to exist and from the first traces of stars that have not yet been born. It is simultaneously an ending and a beginning.

The work draws on the rites of passage of the ethnographer Arnold van Gennep and the concept of liminality developed by cultural anthropologist Victor Turner. Like the liminal phase of a rite of passage, M111 belongs neither to a previous nor to a subsequent state, but exists at the threshold between the two. This condition is further reinforced by the presence of a polyhedron that refers to the solid depicted in Albrecht Dürer’s Melencolia I (1514). This enigmatic form has been the subject of numerous interpretations and has been associated, among others, with the concept of aether, which was believed to mediate between the earthly and celestial worlds. In M111, the polyhedron functions as a form of transition and as a reference to an intermediate space between matter and light, the visible and the invisible, the end and the beginning. Consequently, M111 does not describe a place but a condition, a moment in which something ceases to be what it was without yet having become what it is about to become.
Curator: Kostas Prapoglou
Project Manager: Lefteris Moissiadis

SYNASTRY
16 September – 4 October 2026
Opening 16 September 2026
National Library of Greece | SNFCC
4th Floor Atrium
Free admission