First Woman on the Moon, 1999–. Color video, with sound, 12 min., publicity stills, and open-ended archive originating from the live event on August 28, 1999, produced by Casco Projects, Utrecht, on location in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, dimensions vary with installation. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York,Purchased with funds contributed by the International Director's Council and Executive Committee Members: Tiqui Atencio Demirdjian, Ruth Baum, Edythe Broad, Dimitris Daskalopoulos, Elaine Terner Cooper, Harry David, Gail May Engelberg, Shirley Fiterman, Laurence Graff, Nicki Harris, Dakis Joannou, Rachel Lehmann, Linda Macklowe, Peter Norton, Tonino Perna, Mortimer D.A. Sackler, Simonetta Seragnoli, Cathie Shriro, David Teiger, Ginny Williams, and Elliot K. Wolk, and Sustaining Members: Linda Fischbach, Beatrice Habermann, and Cargill and Donna MacMillan  2005.62. © Aleksandra Mir

On August 28, 1999, a Dutch beach was temporarily converted with the aid of bulldozers into a sprawling lunar landscape of hills and craters. The ten-hour event culminated at sunset, when its organizer, Aleksandra Mir (b. 1967, Lubin, Poland; Swedish citizen), ascended to the highest peak, planted an American flag in the sand, and proclaimed herself the first woman on the moon. Occuring on roughly the 30th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's famous first walk on the moon, Mir's low-budget, deliberately fake performance formed a wry feminist comment on the persistence of gender inequality—a sort of counterpart to Armstrong's “one small step for man.” First Woman on the Moon (1999–) also explored how Armstrong's moonwalk has existed as a mediated reality for everyone except the astronauts themselves, which accounts for its having spawned countless conspiracy theories. The artist deliberately engaged the media for her self-immortalizing spectacle, advertising the event in Artforum and encouraging TV stations and local newspapers to cover it. Although the dunes were leveled that evening, the performance lives on in mediated memory, through a video documentary, numerous publicity stills, and such relics as the original flag.

Ted Mann