On July 27th and 28th Aerocene community member Lorenzo Malloni carried out a 2-day workshop: 26 Steps to be On Air during the Nextones Festival in the Val d’ Ossola, Italy.
Using inexpensive Do-It-Together techniques, the workshop’s twelve participants built two enourmous Tetro Aerosolar sculptures, that were later flown to excellent conditions. About the recent workshop, Lorenzo recalls: “We strictly followed the Aerocene sculpture construction method, including corner reinforcements and an inflation opening with velcro stripes”.
On the third day the participants were able to fly the sculptures collectively built. During the first half hour the wind was very low providing almost ideal conditions, and the sculptures took only five minutes to become buoyant. In Lorenzo’s words: “The alpine air was fresh and chill and the summer sun did the rest”.
Aerocene seeks to change how people relate to the world in environmental, social, and political terms. To build, and to design the sculpture is to engage participants in practices of thinking-through-making and collaborative action, triggering imagination and creativity, and spreading knowledge about solar balloon flights, thermodynamic physics, meteorological science and art practices through a multidisciplinary approach.
Nextones project for “A Theatre of Stone in Nature” stands out as an example of architectural and landscape design which draws on the natural context and the industrial archeology of the location, thus ensuring the continuation of a narrative and enabling future generations to actively experience these spaces and also to contribute to their transformation.
Picture credits: Piercarlo Quecchia / DSL Studio
