Aerocene Rosario - Flights and activities logbook
By Maxi Laina and Joaquín Ezcurra
In the framework of the inauguration of the artistic / cultural project Franja del Río, Aerocene arrived in Rosario to carry out Aerosolar flights and activities.
Along a group of local artists, an enormous Aerosolar Museum was built and flights were made on the Paraná River coast, signing in the air our commitment towards a future free of fossil fuels.
Wednesday, April 10th
We continue assembling the Aerosolar Museum in one of Franja del Rio’s revamped warehouses, its large areas being ideal for this task. We advance at a good pace thanks to the invaluable help of a group of Rosario artists that cut and paste bags, sharing mates (the famous local tea sipped with a metal straw), give shape to a huge fabric made from recycled plastic bags. Our Aerosolar Museum coordinator, the psychologist Eduardo Marengo did a great job in keeping this group united and motivated.
Friday, April 12th
At 7am we began inflating the Aerocene balloons, with a slight breeze coming from the east at 6.8 km/h, measured by Camille with our new anemometer. The wide park between the warehouses of Franja del Río and Spain Cultural Center was our chosen Aerocene-port, ideal to run in teams and fill our balloons with air. During the morning we flew three Aerocene balloons, and were amazed by the harmonious dance that they performed together with the rhythms of the atmosphere. We tune our senses to the atmosphere, floating in the air over the Paraná River without leaving footprints on Earth.
At 3pm, we met with the group of artists from Rosario that tirelessly worked for several days in the construction of the Aerosolar Museum. The day that we were all waiting for finally arrives! The final assembly, and subsequent inflation was guided by Eduardo Marengo and filmed by Maxi Laina. We agreed to assemble outdoors, and so, while our shoes held our recycled canvas, we folded and pasted together until we reached the waited tetrahedron.
Although there was almost no sun, at around 7pm we decided to inflate our Aerosolar Museum. It was a big success, and as we had some flashlights at hand, dozens of children came to participate in this game of shadows and lights, in a magical moment.
Saturday, April 13th
The following morning we were determined to arrive at sunrise, so at 6.30am we were already inflating the balloons. It was the first day of flight of the Museo Aerosolar Rosarino and we were intrigued to see how it would perform. As the sun rose from the east, from the opposite bank of the Paraná River, it encountered us with our balloons pumped up and already atempting to get off the ground.
During the rest of the morning we enjoyed peaceful and quiet flights, with the balloons flying relatively close to each other and to the ground, drawing with a GPS the Aeroglyphs, or signatures in the air to open the Convention of the Air of the Commons: an Aerosolar Trans-national Agreement declaring our particular concern: decarbonization of the air, manifesting the will for a world free of borders, established by the fossil fuel regime.
In the afternoon it was again the time of the Museo Aerosolar, which we installed on a site with very visible to the public that was visiting the activities of Franja del Río opening. We set out to give the opportunity to the largest number of children to enter the Museo and live it from the inside. It was an immediate hit, and in a few minutes a line to enter the Museo had formed, while you could hear little cries of joy from inside. Some children jumped around and ran from one side to another of this ephemeral inflatable and recycled architecture, while others, contemplatively, layed on the ground and watched the tetrahedron with its drawings and inscriptions from the inside. Alejandro Ortigueira, with his camera in hand, captured these moments with respect and a certain joy.
Sunday, April 14th
As we arrived at Franja del Rio at 9am and we found ourselves with an unusual scenario: the atmosphere was still, there was hardly an gram of wind! Needless to say, these are ideal conditions for flights with Aerosolar balloons. We did not waste time and in a few minutes we had three balloons flying, but specifically one, specially equipped. This balloon was provided with a special rope, longer and more resistant, and a a hand-made platform to hold two GoPro cameras. We thought that maybe we could aim higher, and indeed, this balloon exceeded 300 meters in height, with a very quiet atmosphere that favored flying in this range while maintaining our safety standards and protocols.
Luciano González Perlender, professional drone pilot, took the opportunity to make a spectacular 360-degree video of the balloon floating in the air at that height. While the balloon floated in an ocean of air, over the Paraná River in Argentina, we thought: How can we find new ways to reimagine the politics of the atmosphere, challenge national borders and find creative solutions for our common environment? This sublime moment, perhaps it was only a poetic glimpse at approaching this question, which nonetheless, in the midst of the anthropocene, is always present.
If you would like to experiment with the Aeroglyphs created in Rosario, you can find them liked below and feel free to download them. You only need Google Earth soft installed on your computer, by double-clicking file, the balloon’s trajectory will open.
Aerocene Rosario Team
Vero Fiorito > Executive Production
Maxi Laina > General coordination and video direction
Joaquin Ezcurra > Flight operations and visualization
Eduardo Marengo > Museo Aerosolar, community
Camille Valenzuela > Pilot and general production
Alejandro Ortigueira > Cameraman
Luciano Gonzalez Perlender > Drone pilot
Gonzalo Santiso > Video editor
Martin Manzur > Soundtrack
Joni Morabes > Pilot and Rosario Production
Alice Lamperti, Camilla Berggen Lundell, Gwilym Faulkner, Erik Vogler > Aerocene Team Berlin
This project was possible thanks to the support of
