The Last Minutes Before Mars

Existential dread permeates our lives like the searing mist of a bubonic fart. We look longingly into the night sky at that small red dot and foolishly dream of beginning again, as if our daily struggles on Earth will be more easily resolved at -65° and with the help of high doses of cosmic radiation. The Last Minutes Before Mars invites you into the world of a group of young people — the last generation, perhaps — to meet their family, their friends and spend time in the precious spaces of their lives. This sets the scene for your encounter with the other strangers in the room, in a collective experience — hand in hand, arm in arm, face-to-face — exploring the fact that, no matter what happens to us, we live our different lives all on the same journey, toward the same destination; now, hundreds of thousands of years ago, and beyond, in a future too terrifyingly lovely to imagine.

This moment is gone, we’ve moved on to the next moment. Agree or disagree? The next moment has also moved on. Agree or disagree? Time does not exist: Agree or disagree? Neither does space. Agree or disagree? Everything is happening at once. Agree or disagree? This is perfect. Agree or disagree? One day we will not exist. Agree or disagree? Human extinction would not be so bad. Agree or disagree? When I was a teenager I had my own bedroom. Agree or disagree? 

The Last Minutes Before Mars combines 360° video and live performance, features a group of young people, and asks the deep question: what are the necessary and sufficient conditions to produce a beautiful perfectly ordinary day. 

“Right at the opening, the youngsters leave no doubt who will be ‘the boss’ here in the future.”

Sven Westernströer, WAZ (2020)

“A dazzling encounter between virtuality and matter, which Mammalian Diving Reflex chooses as a device to tell the story of today’s turbulent adolescence: the unfathomable distance between one’s private, domestic life and the unexpected, or perhaps even sought-after intimacy, with others.”

Nadia Brigandì and Leonardo Ravioli, ZK Blog (2023)