The ‘Project for the blind astronomer / Projek vir die blinde astronoom’ is an artistic investigation into different coding systems. Using the metaphor of the blind astronomer, the artist has revised and reinterpreted celestial cartography to explain the visible night sky to a visually impaired audience.

Star maps are presented as a tactile experience, and the necessary information to interpret the charts is written in Braille. The audience is faced with a double irony: blind spectators, who see with their hands, cannot fully experience the visual component of the information, while, at the same time, sighted observers cannot access the information required to unlock the meaning of the fantastic visual image.

Both remain in the dark, lacking a total sensory and cognitive experience. ‘In die sterre geskryf’ uses the metaphor of the human condition, appropriating imagery/concepts with irony and altered signification.

Shown in loving memory of Dick Enthoven.

Berco Wilsenach has had numerous exhibitions in South Africa and abroad at prominent spaces such as the Pretoria Art Museum, Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, Villa Croce Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Genova, Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna, the Smithsonian Institute's Museum for African Art in Washington D.C and the Newark Museum, NY. He was awarded a four-year grant from the Spier Arts Trust Patron Programme to complete ‘Project for the Blind Astronomer2009-2013) which has since been exhibited around the world. Along with multiple merit awards and art residencies, Wilsenach won the PPC Young Sculpture's Award (1997) and the ABSA L'Atelier (2005).