The Cosmonaut of Potsdam

"It seems like when the Mosaic Panels of the Cosmos and the Cosmonaut (on the west side) were installed, the builders weren’t full paying attention as they had accidentally switched the position of the two outer panels and rotated one of them by 180 degrees. For the past 44 years, the slightly “abstract” cosmonaut mosaic has now been gracing the streets of Potsdam. It is somewhat strange though that in all that time – not even Eisel sought to correct the mistake."

Without any evidence, I find this notion somewhat naive.

also related:

"At 7 Gagarin Street, at the end of the South Ural State Technical College, formerly a polytechnic school, in Chelyabinsk, there is the panel "Space Conquest" (sometimes simply called "Cosmos"), one of the most important Soviet space-themed mosaics."

https://www.instagram.com/_red.kosmos_/p/Cw7wmQAsO79/?img_in...

This cosmonaut is also used by the local Chaos Computer Club Potsdam as their logo. I think its ingenious.

> "Despite being only a 20 minute train ride away, I've only managed to visit Potsdam 7 times in the past 8 years"

Lived in Berlin for five years, been in Potsdam about three times. I think there's a mean value to this. It's a great place, don't get me wrong, but it's not Berlin. Rex Pilsner is probably the best beer anywhere in Brandenburg, but the place feels like a village compared to Kotbusser Tor.

> Potsdam has the dubious honour of just being a 1 day tourist destination – reduced to Sans Souci and a coffee at the Brandenburger Tor.

When I looked at moving to Potsdam a while back (because it's a beautiful area) it was expensive. Also, the people there are much colder than Berlin, though that might have evened out after the pandemic.

nice! I love Potsdam, especially with a bicycle you can spend a lot of fun time in this beautiful and chill city.

I find the mis-installed panels of the Cosmonaut a little more appealing than they would have been, done properly. The vista of the original design is certainly appealing in its symmetry - but the misaligned panels provide a narrative, rather than a static scene. As the eyes travel the panels provide motion through space, bringing the viewer along for the ride with the cosmonaut. I therefore have to wonder if, having discovered the mistake, the constructors realized that they might have improved the intentions of the artist, or indeed if the artist themselves simply let it be, due to the improved narrative positioning.

What a delightful article!