Alien Care
Extraterrestrial Care is a collective plaster sculpture in which an alien being slowly changes through the actions of visitors.
Visitors are invited to place a plaster on the alien’s body. What begins as a simple, almost caring gesture gradually becomes a visible transformation. Each plaster covers something, but also leaves something behind: an attempt at repair, a temporary solution, a trace of compassion or participation.
The work explores how people deal with vulnerability, discomfort and problems that cannot simply be solved. A plaster suggests care, but can also be a way of covering something up. Through the accumulation of plasters, no healing takes place; instead, a new body emerges.
Extraterrestrial Care is a project in phases. The sculpture can be reactivated again and again in different contexts, where new visitors add new layers.
Transformations
2026 - Renewed Installation
For the renewed installation, Extraterrestrial Care was expanded into a larger spatial installation.
The original plinth was preserved, but incorporated into an aluminium structure. The alien now sits within an open frame: at once a support, a cage, a care structure and a kind of mobile laboratory. The silver-coloured elements evoke associations with medical equipment, spacecraft and temporary infrastructures.
New functional components have been added to the installation. A narrow tray holds the plasters that visitors can use. A screen displays the instructions. Below, a second tray collects the protective strips from the plasters. In this way, the entire action — taking, opening, applying and discarding — becomes part of the work.
The pink, soft-looking 3D-printed ends attached to the aluminium structure refer to skin, protection, prosthetics and wound care. They contrast with the cool metal and with the alien’s pale skin.
The installation remains modular. Other constellations and extensions are possible. The work is not intended as a definitive form, but as a system that can continue to grow.
2026 - Removing the Plasters
After the first plaster phase, the applied plasters were removed from the body.
This action is not a simple return to the beginning. The removal forms a new phase in the life cycle of the work. What had previously been applied as care is pulled away again. The skin becomes visible once more, but the history of the touches remains present within the work.
The animated GIF shows this moment as a reversed growth. The plasters disappear layer by layer. The body becomes available again, ready for a next phase in which other visitors can add new traces.
2024 - Plaster Phase 1
During Transformation Studio No. 1: Hot or Cold at CC De Adelberg, Extraterrestrial Care received its first public activation in 2024.
Visitors were invited to place plasters on the alien’s body. This was done carefully, randomly, one on top of another, sometimes almost until the original surface disappeared. The skin began to grow, thicken and deform.
Each plaster seemed like a caring gesture, but together they formed a new layer. The problem was not solved, but covered up. What began as care turned into a collective accumulation.
To document this gradual transformation, photographs were taken at regular intervals. The images show not only the changing form, but also the accumulation of human intervention: the visible trace of collective good intentions.
Start 2013 - Alien Care
The work originated in 2013 as a thought experiment.
An alien being sits on a plinth. Visitors would be invited to place plasters on its body. The action was intended to make visible how people often deal with problems: by covering something, softening it or temporarily repairing it, without necessarily touching the core.
At that time, the concept remained unrealised. The sculpture was waiting for contact.
