Frontignano Art Walks, Italia

Il 15 ottobre Aerocene si è alzata in volo a Frontignano, una piccola frazione del comune di Ussita, in provincia di Macerata.

Situata nel cuore del Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini, la cittadina è tristemente nota per essere stata uno degli epicentri dei terremoti del 2016: un evento, quello sismico, che ha messo in ginocchio la città, danneggiandola in modo sostanziale e decimando al contempo il numero di turisti che ogni inverno affollavano queste zone per le attività sciistiche.

L’evento si proponeva di riflettere sul significato e sulle possibilità degli “altipiani”, di ripensare le montagne e di come viverle in modo autentico e non invasivo. cittadina è tristemente nota per essere stata uno degli epicentri dei terremoti del 2016: un evento, quello sismico, che ha messo in ginocchio la città, danneggiandola in modo sostanziale e decimando al contempo il numero di turisti che ogni inverno affollavano queste zone per le attività sciistiche.

La scultura Aerocene ha volato attraverso lo splendido scenario e, in assenza di vento, si è alzata lentamente sopra l’orizzonte, mentre un pubblico attento seguiva i suoi movimenti ondulatori.

Sineglossa (@sineglossa_), C.A.S.A. (@portodimontagna), orizzontale (@orizzontale_architecture), BAM! Strategie Culturali (@bamstracult) e Go World (@goworld_touroperator).

Museo Aero Solar Intiñan – COP20, Lima, Perú

We can become aerosolar

By Pablo Suarez, Ph.D.
Innovation Lead
Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre
Leer este artículo en español

On Sunday, December 7, 2014, Museo Aero Solar Intiñán became lighter than air and lifted off the ground, in the context of the annual UN Climate Conference in Lima -COP20. The event included former heads of state, national ministers, and leaders of development organizations from all continents. No need for helium or a burning flame feeding off fossil fuels: Just sunlight and the flame of motivated volunteers.

Under Tomás’ vision and guidance, a team of local volunteers set to work, including artists, students and Red Cross youth, as well as grandmothers and children from the slums near Parque Wiracocha. They collectively constructed a Museo Aero Solar: a large, lighter-than-air sculpture made of plastic bags that would otherwise be trash, engaging people across generations. Named “Intiñán” (a Quechua word meaning “way of the sun”), the sculpture aimed to harness the sun’s power to make our thinking and action take flight.

 

While Museo Aero Solar Intiñán was absorbing the sun’s power before it took flight, many participants decided to experience the magic. People in suits and neckties removed their shoes and crawled into this cathedral of light made of simple plastic bags. An artistic vision was uniting Lima’s shanty town dwellers with Nobel-prize-winning scientists, Bangladeshi community organizers, TV crews, European donors and Ugandan disaster managers, all bonding and reigniting their commitment to a better world while looking up to the luminous world of possibilities from inside the incomprehensibly beautiful sculpture.

I imagine what Pablo must have gone through, to get bureaucratic sign-off on this. No metric of success. No Theory of Change. Him, fighting tooth and nail for a large and hugely risk-averse organization to trust, falls into the arms of a community, an artist, a facilitator, and a game maker. And they did. And it changed the entire event. People in suits crawling into this cathedral made of plastic bags, each individually cut and added with love to the whole. A pile of fancy shoes outside the entrance, like a ballroom bouncy castle. People’s unabashed joy watching art some of them had made into a room, and then lift off to become a transport

Willow Brugh

Intiñán incarnated what our world needs: We can become aerosolar. We can mobilize the power of humanity, embracing science and art to rekindle our relationship with the world. The beauty, the sheer joy, and the deep inspiration that emerged from embarking on Tomás’ aerosolar ideas were magnificently uplifting. His invitation to an artistic experimental performance was an innovative, seriously fun endeavour that compelled us to re-imagine the world and its possibilities.

Hosted by Development & Climate Days, 2014: Zero poverty, Zero emissions, Within a generation.

With:

Studio Tomás Saraceno

Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre

Overseas Development Institute

American Red Cross

Peruvian Red Cross

Pablo Suarez, Carlos Pedreros, Willow Brugh, Helga Elsner Torres, Ramiro Espinoza Wong, Frances Munar Aparicio and many more!

Aerocene at the Grand Palais – COP21, Paris, France

During the end of 2015, “Aerocene – Around the world to change the world”, an open project by Tomás Saraceno was presented at Grand Palais and Palais de Tokyo during the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP21. In the week spanning December 4 – 11 visitors to at Grand Palais in Paris, France, were able to admire the gigantic Aerocene sculptural installation, floating above the COP21 main conference venue.

The material realization was surpassed by the message it bore: Its aesthetic form followed a both utopian and real idea of open source force of movement. Inflated by the air, lifted by the sun, carried by the wind, the Aerocene project questions and seeks answers to our current and troublesome dependency on fossil and hydrocarbon fuels and pollution – the topics that place Aerocene at the core of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP21 topical framework.

Around the world to change the world

Photography by Studio Tomás Saraceno, © 2015
Photography by Studio Tomás Saraceno, © 2015
Photography by Studio Tomás Saraceno, © 2015
Photography by Studio Tomás Saraceno, © 2015
Photography by Studio Tomás Saraceno, © 2015

In a world divided by geopolitics, Aerocene calls for participation and do-it-together actions. Crossing the frontiers between art, science and education, it becomes a visionary and open platform of shared knowledge. Thus it seeks for the deep understanding of our planet and all its physical, natural and social entanglements in order to project new ways of how we can move, dwell and be-together here on Earth.

For COP21 Paris, the artist presented the first Aerocene prototype at Grand Palais that will be able to circumnavigate the earth many times. At Palais de Tokyo, a symposium and a demonstrative workshop was organized, and a series of actions and collective performances, based on open-source collaborative principles, took place. Conformed participants of three panels’ event included Leila W. Kinney (MIT CAST), Marion Ackermann (Kunstsammlung NRW, K21 Düsseldorf), Oliver Morton (The Economist), Bronislaw Szerszynski (Lancaster University) and others.

Aerocene is an extraordinary work of art that is at once a sketch of a cutting-edge scientific laboratory for the environment, a technical and collaborative challenge and a committed work of art. The objective of this ambitious project, imagined by the Argentine artist Tomas Saraceno, is to float in the stratosphere, between planes and satellites, an open data climate watch, providing data and images in real time. To achieve this, the artist has imagined an innovative machine capable of carrying out "the longest thermodynamic flight" around the world, i.e. relying solely on the heat of the sun (without solar panels), the earth's infrared and natural physical processes. This sculptural "science fiction" will be presented in prototype form in the nave of the Grand Palais. At the same time, a symposium and workshop will be held at the Palais de Tokyo on the circulation of energy and its "poetic, ethical and political" implications.

LeMonde.fr

Sven Steudte DL7AD in Houston

Meet Sven Steudte!

Sven is a german electronic engineer, private pilot and radio-amateur DL7AD.

As the creator of the custom balloon tracker Pecan Pico, he has been involved with Aerocene almost since its inception.

He is the author of the Pecan Pico, a custom designed & built electronic device that allows to track the geographic position of free-flying Aerocene Sculptures through radio-amateur APRS system.

The Pecan Pico tracker has been widely used to track free flying Aerocene Sculptures that have ventured into Poland and Easten Europe.

Over the time, Sven has developed and enduring friendship with Wlater Homes K5WH, an american radio amateur who has been flying and chasing balloons with radio equipment for years.

On September 2022, Sven, Walter and a small community of Texas based radio-amateurs launched a solar sculpture carrying Sven’s Pecan Pico tracker. The tracker was able to relay beautiful images from the earth by using the APRS radio amateur network.

Pecan Pico is a cheap lightweight APRS position tracker designed especially for small ballons which may fly for months. This tracker has been made in respect of weight, functionality and price because it’s usually used once like a satellite. While the balloon can fly for a long time, this tracker is solar powered and recharges it’s battery at daytime and uses the power stored in the battery at night. Since this version the tracker is also able to receive APRS

The balloon, launched in Houston, flew south to Central America by using the wind currents at 50000 feet altitude, reaching Guatemala. It later floated above the Sea of Cortez, and turned east along the Mexican American border. It was las tracked in the North Atlantic Ocean, near New York City.

This incredible trip tells many stories: friendship, collaborative work, the inner workings of our delicate and endangered atmosphere, and the results of using technology in un precedented ways.

Congratulations to Sven, Walter, and all the radio-amateur friends within the Aerocene Community!

Sven Steudte DL7AD in Houston post_6
Sven Steudte DL7AD in Houston post_7
Sven Steudte DL7AD in Houston post_8
Sven Steudte DL7AD in Houston post_9
Sven Steudte DL7AD in Houston post_10

Aerocene at Nextones Festival in Italy

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.

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Nextones-Festival-2

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”.

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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

Under My Gaze

We are happy to invite the worldwide Aerocene Community, but especially those in Berlin, to the Under My Gaze aerosolar dance performance, by Renae Shadler and her collaborators together with Aerocene.

“The Sun gazes upon the Earth, creating and destroying life, the engine on which our ecosystems depend. Under my gaze is a ritual for our times, where bodies and voices pulse with the gravitational pull and combustive power of this solar giant, tracing the Sun’s movements through limb and skin, through reflection and darkness. Bodies and voices pulse with the gravitational pull and combustive power of this solar giant, tracing the Sun’s movements through limb and skin, through reflection and darkness.

Under my Gaze is a quartet performed by three people and the Aerocene sculpture that gives a body to the unseen forces that surround us: connecting Earth-bound dancers to aerial and cosmic worlds in a transforming landscape of shadowy creatures and molten forms.

The dancers explore ways to see the Sun without eyes, learning from other creatures – phototropic plants, hydra that sense light with their tentacles. The audience bears witness to this fierce and at times delicate interplay of force and form, tuning in via headphones to the rhythmic stomps and ethereal flight.

Under my Gaze proposes a new poetics of movement fuelled not by fossilised energy, but by the gaze of the Sun itself; moving with – rather than extracting from – the often invisible forces that stir and surround us.”

As we learn to attune to the weather to adapt to new climates, the performance is weather dependent.

Under my Gaze
28-31. July 2022 / 11.30-12.45hr
St. Elisabeth Kirche, Invalidenstraße 4A, 10115 Berlin

The perfomance is open to everyone!
Purchasing a ticket grants you the experience of an audio soundtrack via wireless headphones.

More information: http://renaeshadler.com/undermygaze/

TEAM
Concept, Choreography, Performance: Renae Shadler | Performance: Mickey Mahar, Dorota Michalak | Composition: Samuel Hertz | Set design: Camille Lacadee | Costume design: Geraldine Arnold | Dramaturgy: Ally Bisshop, Maikon K | Production, Distribution: Dörte Wolter | Production assistant: Undine Sommers | Photos: Piotr Pietrus | Video: Camille Lacadee | Inspired by Susurrus group, 2017-2020: Samuel Hertz, Maria Nurmela, Kalle Ropponen, Renae Shadler

Presented by Renae Shadler & Collaborators in collaboration with Aerocene Foundation. Supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the program NEUSTART KULTUR.

Museo Aerosolar Cátedra Goldenstein – FADU UBA

El Museo Aerosolar es una construcción espacial efímera que promueve un estado de conciencia a favor del cuidado del medio ambiente al utilizar energía natural y bolsas de plástico recicladas como material de proyecto.

Iniciado en conversaciones entre Tomás Saraceno y Alberto Pesavento en 2007, el Museo Aero Solar se desarrolla en el espacio formado entre participantes humanos y no humanos en los simples actos de cooperación y reutilización de bolsas de plástico para producir colectivamente una escultura aerosolar, capaz de moverse en el aire, utilizando sólo la energía del Sol.

El MAS gira la mirada hacia el aeroceno: una nueva era geológica centrada en el cuidado de la atmósfera. Es una invitación a cambiar nuestras actitudes más dañinas hacia el planeta y de promover una sensibilidad ecológica con la posibilidad de futuros más limpios.

En el 2013 por invitación del área de educación del Parque de la Memoria, el MAS fue realizado con la cátedra Goldenstein -Proyectual (CBC FADU UBA)- por primera vez. Desde entonces cada año se realiza una nueva construcción con cientos de estudiantes trabajando unidos en un solo equipo.

Agradecemos especialmente a Joaquín Ezcurra y Carlos Almeida de la comunidad Aerocene por compartirnos sus conocimientos para ampliar los límites de esta maravillosa experiencia y a nuestros queridxs Paulina Gramón Vidal y Felipe Ramírez Vilches por las bellas fotografías y el video.

Museo Aero Solar Cuarachi

Leer este artículo en español

Today we dive deep into the history of the Museo Aero Solar (MAS), reliving one of the most amazing MAS ever built, due to its unique and remote location in the Peruvian jungle, the harsh environmental conditions that surrounded its birth and, above all, the resilience of the community that participated in its construction. Allow us to bring the story of the Museo Aero Solar Cuarachi back to life.

In June 2014, a state oil pipeline burst in the department of Loreto, Peru, contaminating the waters of the Marañón River, on which the locals had built their livelihoods for centuries. The lack of media coverage of this ecological catastrophe left the native communities with little hope of receiving help from the government.

Artists Helga Elsner Torres and Ramiro Wong decided to take action and reached out to the well-established and active Museo Aero Solar community in Peru.

Helga and Ramiro, who knew the technique of building the tetrahedron-shaped sculpture, together with a small group of artists and activists travelled to the remote village of Cuninico. With the aim of documenting the impact of the oil spill in collaboration with the Cocama community, which was mostly affected, they took on the challenge of collectively building a Museo Aero Solar.

Helga, in dialogue with Aerocene Community, recalls the experience:
“We travelled with a good friend, Ramiro Wong, from Lima to Iquitos, and from there by boat 2 hours to Nauta. From Nauta we sailed for 12 hours in a small boat, until we finally arrived in Cuninico. There, a family welcomed us in their house and gave us food for the days we stayed working on the project. In a community that lives on natural resources like this one, after the oil spill, it was very difficult to find uncontaminated fish to eat. However, what little they could get, they shared with us. The whole village was willing to help us, they even built us a raft for the Aero Solar Museum! Cuninico, in spite of all the misfortunes it has gone through, is the place with the most beautiful landscape, close to the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve and with the most generous population I have ever met. Although due to the weather conditions, we were not able to meet the objective of documenting the disaster in the time foreseen, we decided that it would be optimal to donate these sculptures to the community. In this way, they would have another tool to document and denounce the oil spill. We would also continue to raise awareness about this news in other places.

That is why Ramiro, Frances Munar Aparicio and I exhibited the experience of the Aero Solar Museum in Cuninico at the 21er Haus Museum in Vienna, Austria, together with the artist Tomás Saraceno. The people who attended the exhibition and the conference were astonished: “How is it possible that, with the utmost impunity, these disasters continue to happen? Who manages to make a solar sculpture in the middle of the Amazon?

In the process of putting together an Aero Solar Museum, the remote Cocama community of Cuninico came together sharing with us the miseries of environmental pollution, but also the joy of building together an immense sculpture made of reused plastic bags on which they wrote their stories documenting the dangerous impacts the dumping had had on the surrounding ecosystem, and on their own lives.

All photographs are by Helga Elsner, whom we thank for contributing to the Aero Solar Museum story!

Museo Aero Solar Orquestando Ciudadanía

Somos efímeros

por Ángela Bonavita
Chascomús, 20 de diciembre de 2021

En septiembre empezamos a juntar, cortar y pegar bolsas de plástico en distintas instituciones de Chascomus, para lograr un gran museo Aero solar de 12 x 36metros.

Hace unos días ese Museo Aero Solar se convirtió en sala de concierto y en bastidor de niñxs, jóvenes y adultxs.

Ver la obra terminada nos invita a reflexionar sobre nuestro consumo. Cada unx de lxs que participamos en el armado aportamos una, dos o más bolsas y entre todxs juntamos (sin muchas complicaciones) las 4.000 que lo conforman.

¿Cuántas de todas esas bolsas habrán tenido más de 15 minutos de uso? ¿Cuántos negocios todavía insisten en usar plástico y cuántos otros lo cambiaron?

También nos gráfica un dato de color (bastante oscuro), este museo es el segundo más grande del mundo pero aún así, sería llenado con la basura de Chascomus que se genera solamente en TRES días.
Somos efímeros, como el aire que entra y sale del globo, mutamos constantemente por el contexto o por cambios internos, como la forma del museo. Al mismo tiempo que cada unx de nosotrxs, somos parte de un todo, como cada bolsa que juntamos y reciclamos o tiramos. Pero vivimos en una sociedad tan inmersa en la rutina que pocas veces dimensionamos el impacto de nuestros actos y agarramos la bolsa del almacén o de ropa así sin mas. La mía + la tuya + la de ella…las cuatro mil.

Que lindo es usar el arte y el juego para frenar y cuestionarnos, compartir y aprender de y con tanta gente este proyecto.
El lunes una niña escribió una frase sobre la emergencia ecológica en el globo y me dió mucha certeza de que a su generación le llevaría bastantes meses más, juntar bolsas de plástico para armar su gran museo aero solar.

Maristella Svampa en Proyecto Ballena

El Antropoceno es la era del colapso. Y la palabra “colapso”, a su vez, sintetiza una realidad ilustrada por eventos extremos cada vez más frecuentes: destrucción de ecosistemas, incendios en la Amazonía, tormentas de fuego, animales sacrificados. Mientras nos acercamos a lo que podría ser el fin de la pandemia, la deuda ecológica todavía se está acrecentando. Acecha el riesgo de la parálisis de la acción, la parálisis de la imaginación política. ¿Cómo orientarnos hacia un camino post-extractivista, recalibrar nuestro lugar en el planeta e incluso en el cosmos? Las respuestas aparecen desde la militancia y el diálogo pero también desde el arte y la literatura, espacios que pueden abrir portales que señalan un horizonte utópico, un hedonismo alternativo, otras formas de vivir sobre la tierra.

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