Cai Guo-Qiang is one of the most important Chinese artists to have emerged internationally in the 1990s. Best known for his spectacular gunpowder projects at locations ranging from museum entrances to the sites of Land art works such as Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, Cai has explored a diversity of media and artforms. These have included works such as an extension of the Great Wall of China, designed to be seen from outer space by extraterrestrial beings; feng shui rearrangements of public and private spaces both in Japan and New York; participatory projects with kites, jacuzzis and mini golf courses; and sculptures constructed from melted-down cars or abandoned boats. His projects are strongly influenced by their location and the works are frequently altered or developed as they are exhibited at new sites. Unifying Cai's wide-ranging work is his consistent investigation of humanity's place within the universe. Born in Quanzhou, China, in 1957, Cai lived in Tokyo from 1985 until 1995 when he moved to New York. Now recognized as a major artist worldwide, he has made projects in all the inhabited continents of the world.

Catalogue for an exhibition held at Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain (Paris) from April 5 to May 28, 2000.

Seeking a working method that would bring him a feeling of freedom, Cai Guo-Qiang experimented with various materials, and in 1989 he unveiled a series of drawings rendered in gunpowder, a substance first discovered by Chinese alchemists in search of an elixir of life for the Emperor and yet used subsequently to kill. These drawings, entitled ‘Projects for Extraterrestrials’, are among the works published in this book, which accompanies an exhibition at the Foundation Cartier pour l’art contemporain. Also included are the artist’s preparatory sketchbooks and gigantic screens. In the Appendixes are ‘Descriptions of the Projects for Extraterrestrials’ , ‘Descriptions of the Other Fire Projects’, “Exhibitions List’ and ‘Bibliography’.