• TOMÁS SARACENO

  • Aerocene is a stateless state, both tethered and free floating; a name for change, and an era to live and breathe in. Aerocene is an era free from borders and fossil fuels, a common imaginary for an ethical re-alliance with the environment, the planet and the cosmic/web of life beyond Anthropocentrism. Understanding that the future is always multiple, Aerocene is an invitation to discover and adopt divergent modes of being towards an atmosphere of ecological sensitivity and endosymbiotic mutualism.

     

    Initiated by artist Tomás Saraceno in 2015, the Aerocene Foundation is a non-profit organisation devoted to community building, scientific research, artistic experience, and education. Its activities manifest, among other things, in the testing and dissemination of solar sculptures that float without any need for fuel or rare gases. The Foundation works with artists, thinkers, scientists, researchers, balloonists, technologists, humanitarian workers, and visionaries to increase public awareness of global resource circulation, and reactivate a common imaginary towards new symbiotic relationships with the earth.

     

    The collection of artworks presented here invites you to enter the Aerocene era and imagine new infrastructures of planetary mobility and ethics, building a new ecology of practice with a DIT (Do-It-Together) spirit and overcoming the extractive approach certain humans have developed towards planetary landscapes, ecosystems and nonhuman species.

     

    Enter the era of the Aerocene!

  • Near the border with Chile, located in southern Bolivia, Salar de Uyuni is the most expansive salt flat in the world. Both bare and barren, the Salar has been witness to the great astronomical discoveries of the century. It is well known among astronauts who seek its refuge upon returning from space missions, perhaps nostalgic of its vast extant or curious to experience the image of endless horizon. In the Salar light moves as energy does at the surface of the Sun. As it reaches the Earth transformed into light, it illuminates the infinite cloudscape above our heads. There is no horizon to parse our sight, there is only movement as light is bound upwards and downwards surmounting any sense of gravity. Without an edge to visibility clouds become a lit cosmos. Continuously questioning our idea of frontiers and borders, clouds steadily intensify the relation between stillness – of shape or form – and motion – with blurring boundaries emerging in a harmonious choreography within air currents. Clouds embody an idea of stillness in motion inviting new ways of sensing the air and inhabiting the atmosphere. Aerocene catalyses the emergence of new ways of inhabiting the world. Deeply linked to the living and its ways of inhabiting the atmosphere, Aerocene traverses multifarious cloudscapes, from the Large Magellanic Cloud to atmospheric cumulonimbus, inviting us to experience airborne travelling and stillness in motion, to learn how to float immersed in a cloudscape instead of flying.

  • Some scientists maintain that the Anthropocene, our current epoch that is marked by human impact on biodiversity and climate, may have begun on July 16th 1945, at White Sands (USA), with the detonation of the first atomic bomb. 70 years later, in the exact same location, the Aerocene community conducted a human flight, using only the power of the sun. The flight was held in the context of "Space without Rockets", an event organized by Aerocene in collaboration with curator Rob la Frenais and the University of Texas. For approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes, seven people were lifted into the air, breaking the world record for the longest and the most sustainable certified manned flight without fossil fuels, solar panels, helium or batteries.

     

    Tomás Saraceno

    Aerocene, launches at White Sands, 2016

    Single channel video, black and white, stereo, HD 1080p, 16:9, 8’00”
    Video by Frederik Jacobi and Anthony Langdon.
    The sculpture Aerocene D-OAEC is made possible due to the generous support of Christian Just Linde. 

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  • The Iceland Print Series portrays a surreal landscape where the ability to locate oneself in space and time is suspended.... The Iceland Print Series portrays a surreal landscape where the ability to locate oneself in space and time is suspended.... The Iceland Print Series portrays a surreal landscape where the ability to locate oneself in space and time is suspended....

    The Iceland Print Series portrays a surreal landscape where the ability to locate oneself in space and time is suspended. Immersed in an atmosphere of vapor, bodies walk on a sea of clouds. This floating perspective destabilizes human embodied experience, allowing it a glimpse into alternative perceptual worlds.

     

    "As above, so below; as below, so above" is a paraphrase of the second verse of the Emerald Tablet, attributed to Hermes Trimegistus, which condenses an analogy that resonates in different worldviews and philosophical systems along our History. This Hermetic principle emphasizes the correspondences between macrocosm (the whole universe as a living being) and microcosm (human being as a universe in miniature), from astronomical objects to subatomic particles.

     

    Through inversion and immersion, this series figures the continuity of matter across scales and the intrinsic connection between all living things on the planet, exploring the speculative sensorial horizon opened by aerial life.

  • Saraceno's Argentina Print Series portrays an early experiment in the artist's long standing occupation with utopian living, which has led... Saraceno's Argentina Print Series portrays an early experiment in the artist's long standing occupation with utopian living, which has led...

    Saraceno's Argentina Print Series portrays an early experiment in the artist's long standing occupation with utopian living, which has led him to the notion of a Cloud City, airborne habitats that, following the reflections of Frei Otto and Buckminster Fuller among others, allow us to think in new ways about mobility, adaptability, and innovation that are required for future sustainable dwelling.

     

    Clouds perform as vital interlocutors between Earth, Atmosphere, and Sun, their various morphologies carry with them messages of weather-presents and futures, guiding the fulfilment of our basic needs and shaping the spheres of our social, mental and environmental ecologies. But, what stories do the clouds embody today?

     

    If clouds of dust can tell us about the origins of the Universe, and those of water vapour about our weather-futures, they might also tell us about our current fossil-fuel regime, its present and other possible futures, making of these matters the translators between species in order to become more attuned lifeforms, sensitive to our position within the invisible web of relations.

  • 163,000 years: the length of time it takes for light traveling through space to reach the Earth. What one sees... 163,000 years: the length of time it takes for light traveling through space to reach the Earth. What one sees...

    163,000 years: the length of time it takes for light traveling through space to reach the Earth. What one sees in these prints, as in the sky, is always the past. In fact, it is the light that was emitted from the Large Magellanic Cloud 163,000 years ago. We, earthlings, are always convicted to watch the past…

     

    Spacetime is not a fixed construction, but rather an action. Similar to the waves that animate the surface of the salt flats in Uyuni, Bolivia, where the film on which these prints are based was shot, gravitational waves ripple spacetime in waxing and waning movements, twisting a linear conception of time. Different temporalities appear, dimensions are projected and epochs redefined.

  • The Cosmos 3 Print Series captures a moment in time in the immersive world of moving color of Tomás Saraceno’s... The Cosmos 3 Print Series captures a moment in time in the immersive world of moving color of Tomás Saraceno’s... The Cosmos 3 Print Series captures a moment in time in the immersive world of moving color of Tomás Saraceno’s...

    The Cosmos 3 Print Series captures a moment in time in the immersive world of moving color of Tomás Saraceno’s installation Poetic Cosmos of Breath. Inspired by the work of Dominic Michaelis, an English architect and inventor who came up with the technology for a solar-powered hot air balloon, it is a time-based, experimental, solar dome that takes flight only under certain climatic conditions. It uses deceptively simple materials: a paper-thin foil accompanied by a few sandbags, and a handful of participants to produce a startlingly ethereal, shimmering effect. Staged at dawn, as temperature conditions naturally shift, air inside the balloon is heated by a greenhouse effect and the lightweight material slowly lifts off the ground completely unaided by machines or electrical power. At the same time, sunlight cast through the material creates a vibrant rainbow-tinged iridescent glow. Firstly commissioned by The Arts Catalyst in 2007 as a performative action at Gunpowder Park in Essex, the installation was later presented in 2013 at “Mobile M+: Inflation!”, Hong Kong as a temporary event occurring periodically during the show.

  • Eclipse of the Aerocene Explorer pictures the Aerocene Backpack in flight as it passes in front of the sun at Salar de Uyuni. When inflated with air and heated by the sun, it elevates into the sky, becoming a flying sculpture, a balloon that rises into the air without the use of fossil fuels, helium or hydrogen. It is sent aloft as a signal that calls for the deconstruction of aerial borders and the preservation of our air.  Providing a message of simplicity, the Aerocene Backpack uses the thermodynamic (in-)balance of the atmosphere to know more about the ocean of air we live in, encouraging the re-appropriation of technologies by local communities and strengthening a Do-It-Together ethos.

     

    Tata Inti is a film depicting the flight of eight Aerocene Backpacks. This flight took place at the Salinas Grandes, a large salt lake in Jujuy, central-northern Argentina, and was conducted by a crew of sociologists, artists, radio amateurs and members of the local community. The specific location was chosen after the lake had become the site of a recent rush to mine lithium, furthering the man-made extractivist attitude that incites climate change and mass extinction, the race to colonize space and disturbed balance of interconnected ecosystem. Indeed, every Aerocene flight serves as a petition for an ethical collaboration with the atmosphere.

     

    Tomás Saraceno

    Tata Inti, 2018

    Single channel video, 16:9, FullHD, black and white, stereo, 4’16’’.

    The artwork benefits from the support of CCK / Sistema Federal de Medios y Contenidos Públicos / Argentina. Courtesy of the artist and Aerocene Foundation.

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  • Fly with Aerocene Pacha is a project by Tomás Saraceno for an Aerocene era. On the 25th of January 2020, 32 world records, ratified by FAI were set by Aerocene with Leticia Noemi Marquès, flying with the message “Water and Life are Worth More than Lithium” written by the communities of Salinas Grandes, Jujuy, Argentina. The flight of Saraceno’s aerosolar balloon took place completely free from fossil fuels, batteries, lithium, solar panels, helium, and hydrogen. It marks the most sustainable flight in human history, and one of the most important experiments in the history of aviation.

  • Saraceno’s work stands in solidarity with the 33 indigenous communities in the Salinas Grandes region, represented by the communities of Tres Pozos, Pozo Colorado, San Miguel del Colorado and Inti Killa de Tres Morros. Members of these communities opened the flight of Aerocene Pacha with a ceremony to bless Mama Pacha – mother earth. They also spoke out to protest the exploitation of their land rights by the ‘green rush’ to mine lithium. 

     

    Lithium mining uses a process that burns off water until only the mineral is left – one tonne of lithium usually requires as much as 2 million litres of water. To put this in context: a standard electric car uses roughly 20 kilograms of lithium; this translates to 40,000 litres of water. A Tesla using an 850-kWh lithium-ion battery uses about 51 kilograms of lithium, or 110,000 litres of water, taken directly from indigenous peoples already experiencing droughts and water shortages.
  • pacha group photo

  • As Saraceno commented, ‘We are flying with our head in the clouds but our feet on the ground.’ Named for ‘Pacha’, the Andean concept of the cosmos that connects what lies below the earth’s surface with the furthest reaches of the universe, uniting space and time. 

     

    Aerocene Pacha is a reminder of our interconnectedness as earthly beings, and of our shared fates with the planet and all who coexist within the terrestrial realm. Developed in collaboration with Aerocene an open-source, participatory community founded by Saraceno, Aerocene Pacha proposed a new way of fossil-free flying and also aimed to support and raise awareness of multispecies communities at threat in our age of planetary climate crisis.

  • Studio Tomás Saraceno acknowledges the profound contributions made by the communities of Salinas Grandes in their collaboration with the Aerocene Pacha project. The exchange of local knowledge and the struggles faced by the native communities as a result of the extractive lithium industry that now plagues the region was central to the narrative of the Aerocene Pacha project, and has since come to define a first step towards humanitarian action for the Aerocene Foundation. Proceeds from Fly with Aerocene Pacha supports Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (FARN), a non-profit that connects with communities in northern Argentina working to maintain biodiversity in the region.

     

    Fly with Aerocene Pacha was produced by the Aerocene Foundation and Studio Tomás Saraceno. Supported by Connect, BTS, curated by DaeHyung Lee. Aerocene is made possible in part by the generous, long-term support of Eric and Caroline Freymond.

     

    Born in 1973 in Tucuman, Argentina, Saraceno currently lives and works in Berlin. He studied architecture at Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires in Argentina from 1992 to 1999 and received postgraduate degrees from Escuela Superior de bellas Ares de la Nación Ernesto de la Carcova, Buenos Aires (2000) and Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste - Städelschule-Frankfurt am Main (2003). In 2009, he attended the International Space Studies Program at NASA Center Ames in Silicon Valley, CA, and was awarded the prestigious Calder Prize later that year.
     

    Among his many exhibitions since the late 1990s, Saraceno’s important solo presentations include ARIA, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy (2020), ON AIR, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2019), Tomás Saraceno: Aerographies The Utopian Practitioner and Visionary, Fosun Foundation Shanghai, Shanghai, China (2019), Tomás Saraceno: How to Entangle the Universe in a Spider Web, Museo de Arte Moderno Buenos Aires, Argentina (2017), Wilhelm-Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen, Germany (2017) Stillness in Motion — Cloud Cities, curated by Joseph Becker, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (2016), Cosmic Jive, Tomas Saraceno: The Spider Sessions, curated by Luca Cerizza at the Villa Croce in Genoa, Italy (2014), Tomás Saraceno, HfG Karlsruhe in Karlsruhe, Germany (2014), In orbit, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen K21 in Düsseldorf (2013), On Space time foam, Hangar Bicocca in Milan (2012-13), Tomas Saraceno on the Roof: Cloud City, a site-specific installation commissioned for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2012), Cloud Specific, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, St. Louis (2011-12), Cloud Cities, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2011-12), 14 billion, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2010), traveled to BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2011), Lighter than Air, Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, traveled to Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston, Texas (2009-10).


    Saraceno also presented two major installations at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019 as part of the group exhibition, May You Live In Interesting Times, curated by Ralph Rugoff. In 2009, he was included in the 53rd Venice Biennale as part of the group exhibition, Fari Mondi//Making Worlds, curated by Daniel Birnbaum.

    His work is presently represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Miami Art Museum, Dallas Museum of Art, Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean in Luxembourg, Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Canada, among others.