THE WORK
A small red house,
permanently placed on the Moon
Mare Frigoris
60.44°N, 4.6°W
6 June 2025
The Moonhouse
The Moonhouse is a conceptual artwork by Mikael Genberg consisting of a small red house permanently situated on the lunar surface.
Conceived in 1999 and realised in 2025, the work centres on displacement, scale and the idea of home removed from Earth.
Originally envisioned at architectural scale, the work gradually evolved into a miniature object shaped by the physical realities of lunar transport. In this transformation, the house became less architectural and more symbolic — an image of home suspended within the vastness of space.
The Artefact
The Moonhouse was integrated into ispace Mission 2 and launched from Kennedy Space Center on 15 January 2025.
The work travelled approximately 1.2 million kilometres from Earth before returning to orbit and reaching Mare Frigoris on 6 June 2025.
Communication with the lander ceased shortly after touchdown. The work remains situated within the designated lunar landing site at coordinates 60.44°N, 4.6°W.
The Moonhouse is regarded as the first privately initiated artwork placed on the Moon under official authorisation from the Swedish government.
Earthbound components
While one house now rests on the Moon, The Moonhouse exists on Earth through two physical artefacts:
The Counterpart
The Earth-based aluminium counterpart developed in parallel with the lunar object.
Exhibited as the physical manifestation of the work on Earth.
The ISS Artefact
The original foldable house carried into Earth orbit during the STS-128 mission to the International Space Station in 2009 by Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang.
Together with the archival record and governmental authorisation, these components form the tangible provenance of The Moonhouse.
Context
For more than three decades, Mikael Genberg has explored the displacement of home into unfamiliar environments.
His works include:
Hotell Hackspett (1998), positioned high within an ancient oak tree
Utter Inn (2000), a submerged hotel room in Lake Mälaren
the STS-128 artefact carried into Earth orbit in 2009
Each work exists through its relationship to a specific site and the psychological shift created by relocation.
The Moonhouse extends this practice beyond Earth.
ARTIST STATEMENT
There is a small red house on the Moon.
It will not be visited. No one will sleep in it, light a fire, or look out its window. It sits in Mare Frigoris — the Sea of Cold — at 60.44°N, 4.6°W, facing the Earth it left behind.
That is the work.
Mikael Genberg has spent decades placing dwellings where dwellings have no right to be. A hotel room thirteen metres up in an oak tree. A cabin on the floor of a lake.
Each work begins with a simple act of displacement and ends with the same quiet question: what does it mean to be somewhere?
The Moonhouse extends that question beyond Earth.
It was never about going there. It was about being here.
It remains.
