Space travelers, or ET’s if you wish, in shimmering golden suits will fly from Warsaw to Brussels on June 4th on board a gold painted airplane. Their mission – to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism.

Krystyna Kolosowska reports

LOT Polish Airlines is painting a Boeing 737 plane gold specially for the mission codenamed “Common Task.” This is the title of a project by a brilliant Polish artist Pawel Althamer, who turned his neighbors in a drab, working class Warsaw district of Brodno into extraterrestrial types.

On June 4th they will descend on Brussels, wander around the city, visiting such key sights as the Atomium building, the European Parliament and the central Grand Place Square. They will also go on a picnic in the Royal gardens. The trip of the golden aliens is the idea of the National Centre of Culture, which decided to mark the anniversary of the fall of communism in on out-of-the-rut way. Katarzyna Mazurkiewicz says the motto is- it all began in Poland.

Poles spoke overwhelmingly then in favor of free, democratic Poland and against the oppressive communist system in what were the first partially free parliamentary elections here after World War II, triggering an avalanche of changes in Central and Eastern Europe.

Pawel Althamer says the space travelers bound for Brussels are a mixed group, not only people from his district. This project is about freedom, in the sense also that it is a grassroots initiative – the participants themselves decide whether they want to join it or not.

This will not be the first foreign tour of the space travelers’ group rallied together by Pawel Althamer. Last year they visited the city of Brasilia. They also plan to go to Africa.

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