Lift the Machine
Ensemble
“Keep the opposing poles in balance, and lift the machine!” - Panamarenko
In the 1980s and ‘90s, Panamarenko was looking for new ways to lift himself into the air (and far beyond). He was now engaged in high-altitude aviation. The 1979 experiment called Magnetische velden (Magnetic Fields) demonstrated that electromagnetic power had the greatest chance of success in propelling a flying saucer out of the earth’s atmosphere beyond the reach of gravity. Under the heading Reis naar de sterren (Journey to the Stars), he devised and designed numerous flying and hovering saucers. He accompanied the Flying Saucer installation with a typed statement of his theory of space, in which he cunningly used opposing magnetic poles to make spheres and saucers surf freely through the cosmos. In 1983, the Droma magnetic rotor led to the construction of the Grote Plumbiet. When the synchronised mechanism of the magnetic cylinders turns, powerful magnetic forces are generated in the field above the machine. Metal discs and flying saucers are able to hover in this magnetic field.
