We Are the Asteroid is a large-scale art installation focusing on climate issues in general and the currently advancing sixth mass extinction in particular.

The display comprises an apparently three-dimensional asteroid with a diameter of around six metres inside a cube-shaped scaffolding construction. This memorial to destruction not only embodies a lack of solidarity, but also uses texts and graphic elements to address fundamental questions about our lives and economic activities.

The content of the project is based on an analogy between mankind’s impact on the earth and that of the asteroid that led to the extinction of dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Today, the climatic consequences of the event back then are being caused by the actions of people from the industrialised nations. Globally, 70% of wild animal populations have disappeared over the last 50 years, with human beings and their livestock now accounting for over 95% of the biomass of all existing mammals. According to a United Nations report on biodiversity, around one million species are threatened with extinction in the next two decades. This corresponds to around 10% of all species and means the irreversible loss of 150 animal and plant species every day.

The installation We Are the Asteroid addresses this fundamental lack of solidarity between human beings and nature and non-human living beings, as well as future generations. Accompanying information boards convey these key problems of our time and raise the question of how we can repair our relationship with future generations and our environment, and thus show solidarity.

Thomas Medicus is a visual artist based in Innsbruck, Austria. He is best known for his anamorphic cubes, but he also works in other fields such as illustration, animation, digital art, stained glass, restoration and conservation, and art in public space. He studied social work at MCI Innsbruck before attending the School of Glass Art in Kramsach, where he later earned the title “master glazier”. In addition to working as a freelance artist, he was employed by the Tiroler Glasmalerei for seven years before becoming self-employed in 2021.