Building the ‘Moonhouse’: Q&A with artist Mikael Genberg

A dream that Mikael Genberg has nurtured for more than a quarter century could come true today (June 5).

The Swedish artist’s “Moonhouse,” a project he devised way back in 1999, is set to touch down on the moon this afternoon aboard Resilience, a lander operated by the Japanese company ispace.

The artwork — a tiny replica of the red-and-white houses that dot the Swedish countryside — is mounted on the front bumper of Tenacious, a microrover built by ispace’s European subsidiary. If Resilience touches down safely today and everything thereafter goes to plan as well, Tenacious will deploy from the lander and drop the Moonhouse onto the lunar dirt, giving the gray landscape a solitary spark of vibrant color.

Space.com caught up with Genberg via email recently to discuss the Moonhouse, how he’s feeling with the touchdown try just around the corner and what a successful landing would mean to him. The questions and answers are presented below in their entirety.

Space.com: How and when did you first get the idea to put a little Swedish house on the moon?

Mikael Genberg: Working as an artist is, in many ways, about trying to describe the world, life, and human beings from different perspectives. All culture is essentially that: describing and re-describing what it means to be here. The house, as a symbol, holds in my mind a unique combination of survival and beauty.

When I first imagined a typical Swedish house standing on the moon, I instantly felt the power of the image, but also its impossibility. I had no competence, no funding, no connections. Still, the thought didn’t leave me. I started talking about it, first with close friends, then with others. Gradually, a sense of shared purpose, or something like that, began to form around the idea.

Somehow, the concept managed to survive, and even grow, for 26 years, carried forward by its own poetry, craziness and hardship and by the incredible support of people who believed in it. That persistence of the idea itself is kind of an artwork.

Space.com: What does this piece mean to you? What do you hope it achieves, or how do you hope it affects people?

Genberg: To me, the Moonhouse is both a shared achievement, something made possible by the efforts of many individuals, but also a profoundly personal thing. Being able to touch the moon with a small house that I painted in the kitchen of our red house from 1758 creates deeper emotions than I expected. It’s like putting my finger on that distant white disc in the sky. An impossibility that comes to life.

It’s a small house in a vast, empty place, a symbol of belonging, curiosity, and vulnerability. I hope it invites people to reflect on our relationship to space, and to recognize the fragility and uniqueness of our own world, this Pale Blue Dot, packed with life, all related to each other. The Moonhouse doesn’t claim anything except maybe to be art, but even that is of no real interest. It’s a small red house standing on the moon. That’s all.

The Moonhouse: The First Ever House on the Moon – A Swedish Red Cottage Set to Land June 5 – YouTube

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Space.com: How do you feel now, being so close to the lunar landing? What emotions are running through you?

Genberg: It’s a strange mix of awe, anxiety, disbelief, and sheer, childish happiness. So many things have had to go right just to reach this point. There’s excitement, of course, but also a deep sense of humility in understanding the challenges that still lie ahead.

I’m trying not to get swept away by the emotions entirely, but instead to stay present in this moment. Whatever comes next.

Space.com: What would mission success — Tenacious deploying the Moonhouse onto the gray dirt — mean to you? What would it mean to humanity?

Genberg: If it works, if the Moonhouse actually stands there on the lunar surface, I think it would be a moment of something extraordinary. Maybe more poetry than art. For me personally, it would be the culmination of imagination, persistence, and collaboration with so many wonderful people.

As for what it might mean to humanity, that’s really up to each person. I love that people have already responded in their own creative ways: sending us songs, children’s drawings, poems. That, to me, is success, when an idea sparks new ideas in others.

I hope the Moonhouse can become a small cultural marker. Something that says: we were here, and we brought not just our technology, but our dreams, our symbols of home. We come in peace.

Space.com: What if Resilience fails during its landing attempt on June 5? Will you still regard the Moonhouse project as a success?

Genberg: That’s hard to say. In the moment, I’m sure I would feel deep disappointment. But with some distance, I believe I’ll be able to see how the Moonhouse has already succeeded in many ways. It exists. It was built. It sparked thoughts, conversations and creativity across the world.

Of course, I hope it lands safely. But I also accept that space missions are, by nature, super-risky. No matter what happens, the House will reach the moon. The only question is in what shape.