For her solo exhibition Planet Greyhound at Kunsthalle Gießen, the artist Julia Scher transforms the exhibition space into a temporary bus station for humanoid and extraterrestrial life forms.

The title ‘Planet Greyhound’ comes from a planet that has been acquired for the exhibition and christened as such – it is thereby promoted to an object of targeted surveillance and at the same time to a cosmic place of longing for marginalised life forms. In Julia Scher’s work, thoughts about the motivation and implementation of existing security and surveillance mechanisms merge with reflections on groups that are mostly powerless in the face of such control.

The namesake ‘greyhound’ refers to Greyhound Lines, the USA’s largest long-distance bus company. Last winter their decommissioned buses were often converted into mobile stations for marginalised groups to keep warm. At the same time, dogs are a recurring motif in the artist’s works, usually symbolising domestication; controlled training for the benefit of the human need for security.

Upon entering the exhibition space, lined with watchful greyhound sculptures, visitors find themselves in an intergalactic bus station. Situated between Earth and the planet Greyhound, it can be viewed as a kind of “trans-state” – a transit space in which a seating area invites you to closely observe the traffic of people between the planets via video recordings and display panels.

The motivation for the logistic control and observation of the distant planet and its beings remains open. Does it serve to monitor alien and potentially threatening life forms? Is it the symptom of thriving space tourism, or is it transforming the Kunsthalle into a safe space and intergalactic layover for marginalised groups who, in the hope of a new, more peaceful coexistence beyond mechanisms of control, are embarking on a journey to the planet Greyhound?

Julia Scher’s work immersively encourages reflection on one’s own role when dealing with surveillance structures, unknown cultures and marginalised groups – issues whose relevance continues to grow in the wake of pandemic contact tracing, Elon Musk’s SpaceX project and the recent Pentagon reports on UFO sightings by the US Department of Defense.


Julia Scher (* 1954, Los Angeles) lives and works in Cologne. For more than three decades, her installations and series of works have been subverting the security systems that control both public and private space. Her work has been punctuated by an extensive programme of international solo and group exhibitions, including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA); Fri Art Kunsthalle, Fribourg, Switzerland (with Vanessa Beecroft); Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.