As you probably know André Kuipers is a Dutch astronaut, currently in space. As a tribute to him Mobile Samsung has sponsored a huge message from earth to André. The work, called Nederland groet André (The Netherlands Greets André), consists of tens of thousands of portraits of Dutch citizens which have been printed on a 2,000-kilogram canvas that has been fixed to the ground by 1,100 tent pegs. Nederland groet André was designed by Spanish street artist Notasso who works with smartphones. More than 36,000 Dutch people submitted their pictures from their Facebook profiles (I didn’t even know until now that this was going on -_-).
The work has the same surface area as one-and-a-half football fields – so big that André Kuipers can see it from space. Passengers taking off from or landing at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport can also see the enormous work of art in a field near the town of Nieuw Vennep.
Kuipers left for a six-month stay aboard the ISS on 21 December 2011 which means that, by the time he gets back, he will have spent more time in space than any other Dutch person.
Sponsored by Samsung Mobile
