Famed cosmologist and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking unveiled his ambitious Breakthrough Starshot two years ago; a plan to send a tiny, light-propelled robotic spacecraft through space. For a man of such brilliance the concept of transcending our limitations was a common one to contemplate and explore.

Opiemme. Museo di Arte Urbana. Torino, Corso Tassoni, Italy. June 2018. (photo courtesy of Opiemme)

Street Artist and poet Opiemme uses language, or rather the raw matter of its letters, to propel a column of light across this wall in Torino, Italy for the Museo di Arte Urbana (MAU). As many distinguished guests paid homage to Hawking at a memorial in Westminster Abbey this week and his ashes were interned alongside those of Darwin and Newton, Opiemme says the new street piece is meant as as a tribute to Hawking and his work and his many ambitions, like visiting Alpha Centauri, our nearest star.

“For all the passion about the Universe you infused us with,” Opiemme writes, “your easy words for amateurs of outer space.”

Opiemme. Museo di Arte Urbana. Torino, Corso Tassoni, Italy. June 2018. (photo courtesy of Opiemme)

Opiemme. Museo di Arte Urbana. Torino, Corso Tassoni, Italy. June 2018. (photo courtesy of Opiemme)

Opiemme. Museo di Arte Urbana. Torino, Corso Tassoni, Italy. June 2018. (photo courtesy of Opiemme)