A SOVIET COMIC BOOK MADE SPACE TRAVEL A NEW OBSESSION IN THE EARLY 1950S AND WHAT WOULD LATER COME TO BE A GLOBAL COMPETITION TO LAND ON THE LUNAR SURFACE. THE SPACE RACE BECAME AN UNFAMILIAR YET EXCITING PART OF EVERYONE'S DAILY LIFE. IT LED TO A NEW GENERATION OF COSMONAUTS WHO WERE FASCINATED BY THE SURREALISM AND DARKNESS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. THERE WERE BUILDINGS THAT WERE BUILT TO LOOK LIKE FLYING SAUCERS THAT TOOK OVER CITIES IN MUCH OF THE WORLD. THESE "SPACESHIP" LIKE STRUCTURES WERE NOT ONLY DESCRIBED BY MODERNIST FREDERIC CHAUBIN AS "POWERFUL AND DREAMLIKE" BUT THEY ALSO DEFIED THE DECAY OF THE POST-SOVIET WORLD THAT HAD INFLUENCED SO MUCH OF EASTERN EUROPE AND BEYOND. SCHOOLS, APARTMENT BLOCKS, EVEN CINEMAS, THE DESIRE TO LAUNCH INTO SPACE WAS GETTING STRONGER EVERYDAY.

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NOWADAYS THESE COSMIC PLACES ARE URBAN CENTRES OF ART AND CREATIVITY. SOLACE FROM THE INEQUALITIES AND CHALLENGES OF PRESENT TIMES. BUT HIDING BEHIND BRUTALISM AND CONCRETE MUCH OF THEIR PURPOSE AND AMBITIONS STILL LIVE ON, CAPTURING THE IMAGINATION OF ARTISTS WHERE MANY OF THEIR ONCE NEGLECTED SPACES HAVE SINCE BEEN REINVENTED. 

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COSMIC 2.1 IS A COLLECTION INSPIRED BY THE DREAMS AND ASPIRATIONS OF THOSE WHO WANTED TO BE A PART OF THE ENERGY THAT ENCAPSULATED THE COSMOS. THIS IS FOR THEM.