Floating above and below: Aerocene Frozen Lake, Rummelsburg, Berlin

Sunday, 14th of February 2021

Rummelsburg, Berlin, Germany

52.4946° N, 13.4800° E

TIME ON AIR: 360′

 

Aerosolar Pilots:


Lorenzo Malloni

Irina Bogdan

Thomas Charil

Alberto Vallejo

Giulia Ambrosini

Diego Alejandro Puerto Martinez

 

After a week of very low temperatures, a rare opportunity has been made possible by especially harsh winter conditions in Berlin this year: a sharp radiant sun has uncovered above the city and its frozen waterways, allowing thousands of people to walk on thick ice. 

Early in the morning, a group of six Aerosolar Pilots borrowed three Backpacks from the Aerocene Foundation and experienced a flight free from carbon emissions on top of the frozen Rummelsburg lake in Berlin. 

The vast white surface of the lake had stopped any of its motions, no water ripples, boats remaining still in their positions, as decontextualized artefacts on a deserted land. Terrestrial beings are now bashfully walking where they were not allowed to only a day before. A spontaneous situationist environment has come to life, an empty, vast stage where the public and performers merge, activating a place for renewed shared experiences. 

As soon as the black Aerosolar sculptures get inflated on the ice with only air, the power of the sun lifts them off instantaneously – amplified by the albedo reflection effect on the white, frosty lake. Immediately, their movements in the thin air generate a focal point attracting the public and participants onto the wide white stage. 

The Aerosolar Pilots share their floating experience with whoever is around, passing the fluctuating rope and initiating a bonded, bonding slow dance between humans and the solar airborne creatures.

The transitory stage hosts the first act of a participatory piece in which the sun, the winds, human and non-human are all protagonists. 

Although the stunning beauty of the three hours experience, bathed in the wintry sun, it is not easy for the aeronauts to forget that under that thick layer of ice, down to the bottom of the lake, the contamination of several decades of industrial waste has made impossible life conditions for many autochthonous species. 

As stated by the Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde: 

“The combination of high chemical contamination with persistent organic and inorganic chemicals, toxicity and specific substrate composition, makes a natural repopulation scenario for the improvement of the biological diversity extremely improbable”

When leaving the lake, the aeronauts’ wish is that the mirage-like white blanket that has covered it for the day, allowing for them to fly aerosolar on top of it, will be a reminder of what lies beneath it, at its very bottom, where man-generated pollutant particles have layered in-depth; that our waste does not only end up in the air that we breathe, but also in the very populated hidden underworld of our lakes, rivers and seas, all very close to us, but perhaps often forgotten merely because we can´t walk on them.

Photography by Aerocene Foundation and Tom Klingbeil, 2021, licensed under CC by Aerocene Foundation 4.0

Movimento Ar livre! – Aerocene rising in São Paulo, Brasil

Join Aerocene!

On 20th October at 10:30 am, Aerocene Community will reunite in São Paulo for a collective action supporting climate change awa(i)reness towards a movement for free from fossil-fuel futures.

If the weather allows it – a sunny day and no winds – we will be ON AIR completely free of carbon emissions in front of MASP, Av. Paulista, 1578 – Bela Vista, São Paulo – SP, 01310-200.
++++ Please scroll down for English version ++++
Junte-se ao Aerocene! No dia 20 de outubro, às 10h, a Comunidade Aerocene se reunirá em São Paulo para uma ação coletiva em apoio a um movimento por um futuro sem combustíveis fósseis. Se o tempo permitir – um dia ensolarado e sem vento – estaremos no AR sem emissões de dióxido de carbono no vão livre do MASP, Av. Paulista, 1578 – Bela Vista, São Paulo – SP, 01310-200. São Paulo é uma cidade de recordes. Sendo a maior cidade do hemisfério sul e ocidental, sua geografia mudou tão rapidamente no século passado que por muito tempo foi impossível mapear sua extensão. Hoje a imigração tem taxas menores de crescimento do que no passado e o tecido urbano está se consolidando, o Google Street View explorou a maioria dos cantos da cidade, mesmo em áreas que a classe média considera muito arriscadas para uma caminhada. Todas as manifestações de um novo regime climático estão presentes aqui: o movimento pelo direito à moradia está crescendo; os processos de integração esbarram contra um quadro colonial muito presente e as políticas de bem-estar estão longe de ser um padrão. Não é de estranhar que o congestionamento urbano tenha produzido uma zona extremamente poluída, entre os vários índices alarmantes a mencionar está o das partículas em suspensão da poluição atmosférica, que se situa, em média, entre 20 e 25 microgramas por metro cúbico – mais do dobro do considerado seguro pela Organização Mundial de Saúde. Em todo o estado de São Paulo, a poluição do ar tem sido citada como responsável pela morte de cerca de 100 mil pessoas entre 2006 e 2011 por doenças respiratórias. No entanto, morar em São Paulo pode ser uma experiência agradável para quem consegue compensar o estresse da megalópole acessando as inúmeras estruturas – por uma preço – ou se permitindo uma melhor qualidade do ar através das experiências filtradas de construção equipada e carros refrigerados. Independentemente da origem social, viver em São Paulo significa confrontar-se com as consequências de um modelo de crescimento que requer uma enorme quantidade de recursos para manter um regime hiperconsumista. Quando essa voracidade encontra os piores programas políticos, alimenta uma extração irresponsável de recursos, um consumo selvagem e criminoso que consome em ritmo insensato um dos tesouros mais preciosos do Brasil — uma área natural impressionante que abriga comunidades indígenas que lutam para proteger a biodiversidade contra lucros privados e corporativos. Queremos decolar em São Paulo para ampliar nossos horizontes e ver o patrimônio natural acima da periferia urbana, pois o Brasil abriga 70% das espécies animais e vegetais listadas no mundo e é o país com o maior número de povos indígenas isolados. Aerocene vai flutuar no ar da cidade poluída para discutir um novo regime econômico que se opõe ao desmatamento amazônico e celebrar o grande esforço que as comunidades indígenas estão fazendo para proteger o ecossistema para todos nós. Se você quer se tornar um aeronaut conosco, por favor, mantenha-se atualizado sobre as ações do aero solar – confira nossos canais de mídia social. Sigue a ação coletiva em São Paulo em WHATSAPP: https://chat.whatsapp.com/IotVtgH6BiuCCgoatgjgB0 TELEGRAM: https://t.me/joinchat/NuAp5BIFpTOgxKmH2w_ioQ FACEBOOK EVENT. https://www.facebook.com/events/1020037395011943/?active_tab=about Em direcção a outros futuros possíveis, vamos nos livrar dos combustíveis fósseis – junte-se ao Aerocene! ++++ English version ++++ Join Aerocene! On 20th October at 10:00 am, Aerocene Community will reunite in São Paulo for a collective action supporting climate change awa(i)reness towards a movement for free from fossil fuel futures. If the weather allows it – a sunny day and no winds – we will be ON AIR completely free of carbon emissions in front of MASP, Av. Paulista, 1578 – Bela Vista, São Paulo – SP, 01310-200. São Paulo is a city of records. Being the biggest city in the Southern and in the Western Hemisphere, its geography has been changing so quickly in the past century that for long has been impossible to maps its extensions. Nowadays the immigration is not racing anymore and the urban fabric is consolidating, Google Street View explored most of the corner of the city, even in areas that the middle class would mark too risky for a night walk. All the amplitudes of the new climate regime is a real struggle here: the movement demanding housing for humans is rising (a fight for a very basic human right); integration seems to crash everyday against a still heavy colonial framework and welfare politics are far from being a standard. Not surprisingly the urban congestion causes an extremely polluted area, among various alarming indexes worth to mention is the air pollution particulates averaging 20 to 25 micrograms per cubic meter — over twice what is deemed safe by the World Health Organization. Across the entire state of São Paulo, air pollution has been cited as responsible for the death of nearly 100,000 people from 2006 to 2011 from respiratory illnesses. Living in São Paulo is a more pleasant experience to anybody that can compensate the stress of living in the megalopolis accessing the countless – paid – facilities, or granting himself a better air quality through filtered experiences in decent building and refreshed cars. Living in São Paulo means confronting – regardless the social extraction – with the consequences of a growth model that demands a massive amount of resources to maintain itself in obligation to consumeristic pledges. When hunger reaches the worst political agenda it fuels an irresponsible extraction of resources, a savage and brainless overconsumption that chew one of the most precious treasure of Brasil, an impressive area of natural area which is home of indigenous communities that are fighting to protect the natural biodiversity of their habitat against corporative and private profits. We want to take off in São Paulo to broaden our horizons and see above the urban outskirts the natural heritages as Brazil is home to 70% of the world’s catalogued animal and plant species, and the country with the largest number of uncontacted indigenous peoples in the World. Aerocene will be floating in the heavily polluted city’s air to discuss a new economic regime that stands against the Amazon deforestation and celebrate the great effort that the indigenous communities are doing to protect the ecosystem for all of us. If you want to become an Aeronaut with us, please keep yourself updated with aerosolar actions – check our social media channels and: Follow the São Paulo collective action on WHATSAPP: https://chat.whatsapp.com/IotVtgH6BiuCCgoatgjgB0 TELEGRAM: https://t.me/joinchat/NuAp5BIFpTOgxKmH2w_ioQ FB EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/1020037395011943/?active_tab=about Towards other possible futures, we move free from fossil fuels – Aerocene unite!
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