»Tradition is a dare for innovation.«

Alvaro Siza

Blog AGENDA

Reactivating the Collective Imagination

Aerocene by Tomas Saraceno

  • Tomás Saraceno’s “Aerocene” prototype at the Grand Palais in Paris. (All images © Tomás Saraceno) 1 / 12  Tomás Saraceno’s “Aerocene” prototype at the Grand Palais in Paris. (All images © Tomás Saraceno)
  • A project intended to “reactivate the collective imagination” around the issue of climate change. 2 / 12  A project intended to “reactivate the collective imagination” around the issue of climate change.
  • Spectacular prototypes at the Grand Palais – but is it just naïve and a little bit silly? 3 / 12  Spectacular prototypes at the Grand Palais – but is it just naïve and a little bit silly?
  • Testing an “Aerocene” prototype. 4 / 12  Testing an “Aerocene” prototype.
  • Visualisation of Saraceno’s “Aerocene” together with his earlier project in the same series: “Cloud Cities”. 5 / 12  Visualisation of Saraceno’s “Aerocene” together with his earlier project in the same series: “Cloud Cities”.
  • Visualisation of the “Aerocene” installation at the Grand Palais in Paris. 6 / 12  Visualisation of the “Aerocene” installation at the Grand Palais in Paris.
  • Concept drawing. 7 / 12  Concept drawing.
  • The proposed “Aerocene” launch track. 8 / 12  The proposed “Aerocene” launch track.
  • Study for the day and night altitude alteration of “Aerocene”. 9 / 12  Study for the day and night altitude alteration of “Aerocene”.
  • Study for the “Aerocene” tracks as it circumnavigates the globe. 10 / 12  Study for the “Aerocene” tracks as it circumnavigates the globe.
  • Concept drawing showing how “Aerocene” keeps airborne using passive heating and cooling from the sun. 11 / 12  Concept drawing showing how “Aerocene” keeps airborne using passive heating and cooling from the sun.
  • Sketch for the road map towards Saraceno’s global collaborative initiative to combat global warming which proposes “multiple and concrete solutions for our common environment, now and here on Earth”. 12 / 12  Sketch for the road map towards Saraceno’s global collaborative initiative to combat global warming which proposes “multiple and concrete solutions for our common environment, now and here on Earth”.

The Berlin-based, Argentinian-born artist Tomás Saraceno is known for his spectacular, light, airy and interactive installations. He has just launched his most ambitious project to date with a new proactive initiative at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris during the COP21 climate conference. But is it only castles in the air? asks Sophie Lovell.

Can activist gestures – even beautiful poetic ones – make any real difference? Can they really have an effect on policies and actions beyond the sharing of striking images by the liberal chattering masses of social media? We were promised a global sense of belonging in the digital age of the maturing Anthropocene, but it looks sometimes like what we have ended up with is a splintered society just as aggressively tribal and bigoted as it was before the Roman Empire. With the class of certain presidential candidates these days, one despairs of us ever living up to the brave and optimistic name of Homo sapiens. Perhaps Homo ferox or Homo avarus are a great deal more appropriate.

Concept drawing.

But there are those who still really believe we can be better and are prepared to fight for that with their poetic gestures. The artist Tomás Saraceno is one of them. Launched on December 6, during the gathering of the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference COP21 in Paris – from which we are still awaiting (with not much hope it has to be said) any significant agreement on emission control and climate change – Saraceno’s latest art project at the Grand Palais with an accompanying symposium at the Palais de Tokyo. Aerocene, as the artwork is called, will be a series of giant ball-shaped spherical sculptures (or maybe just one – it is a little unclear) “inflated by the air, lifted by the sun and carried by the wind” that will be launched from January 2016 and circumnavigate around the globe by hitching a ride on the jet streams “without the burning of fossil fuels, without using solar panels, batteries; helium, hydrogen or other rare gases”.

Study for the day and night altitude alteration of “Aerocene”.

For Saraceno the catchily-named Aerocene project is about “reactivating the collective imagination” and with it he is adding his voice to those calling for investment in new ideas to fuel our transition out of the fossil fuel age – before we manage to extinguish most of the life on our planet. For beyond his own sculptures he is generating an open collective call to action for groups of individuals all over the world for “multiple and concrete solutions for our common environment, now and here on Earth”.

It is ambitious, idealistic, attractive and impractical – how does global air traffic feel about having giant silver balloons floating about on their motorways in the sky for example? – it is also quite naïve and a little bit silly. Which is exactly why we should probably support the hell out of it.

Sophie Lovell

aerocene.com

Read about another of Tomás Saraceno’s recent projects Hybrid Solitary… Semi-Social Quintet… On Cosmic Webs… in the uncube blog here.

PUBLISHED 09 Dec 2015 WHAT AGENDA Art WHERE Paris France WHO Tomás Saraceno AUTHOR

RECENT POSTS

more

Recent Magazines

25 Apr 2016

Magazine No. 43
Athens

  • essay

    From the Bottom and the Top

    Powering Athens through collectivity and informal initiatives by Cristina Ampatzidou

  • photo essay

    Nowhere Now Here

    A photo essay by Yiorgis Yerolymbos

  • Essay

    Back to the Garden

    Athens and opportunities for new urban strategies by Aristide Antonas

  • Interview

    Point Supreme

    An interview by Ellie Stathaki

>

03 Mar 2016

Magazine No. 42
Walk the Line

  • Essay

    The Line Connects

    An essay on drawing and architectural education by Wes Jones

  • Essay

    Drawing Attention

    Phineas Harper sketches out new narrative paths with pencil power

  • Essay

    Gotham

    Elvia Wilk on a city of shadows as architectural fiction

  • Interview

    The (Not So) Fine Line

    A conversation thread between Sophie Lovell and architecture cartoonist Klaus

>

28 Jan 2016

Magazine No. 41
Zvi Hecker

  • essay

    Space Packers

    Zvi Hecker’s career-defining partnership with Eldar Sharon and Alfred Neumann by Rafi Segal

  • Interview

    Essentially I am a Medieval Architect

    An interview with Zvi Hecker by Vladimir Belogolovsky

  • viewpoint

    The Technion Affair

    Breaking and entering in the name of architectural integrity by Zvi Hecker

  • Photo Essay

    Revisiting Yesterday’s Future

    A photo essay by Gili Merin

>

17 Dec 2015

Magazine No. 40
Iceland

  • Viewpoint

    Wish You Were Here

    Arna Mathiesen asks: Refinancing Iceland with tourism – but at what cost?

  • Photo Essay

    Spaces Create Bodies, Bodies Create Space

    An essay by Ólafur Elíasson

  • Focus

    Icelandic Domestic

    Focus on post-independence houses by George Kafka

  • Essay

    The Harp That Sang

    The saga of Reykjavík's Concert Hall by Sophie Lovell & Fiona Shipwright

>

more

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MAILING LIST Close

Uncube is brandnew and wants to look good.
For best performance please update your browser.
Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer 10 (or higher), Safari, Chrome, Opera

×