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AEROCENE TIMELINE
the milestones of a 20 years long dream
Aerocene, as a vision, starts to form
Museo Aero Solar community emerges while at the same time Tomás Saraceno flies in his first tethered human flight, aptly named 59 steps to be on air by sun power.
Poetic Cosmos of the Breath - a solar dome of around 60 m diameter, made of thin iridescent foil, lifted by the sun, Gunpowder Park, London, UK
French philosopher Bruno Latour joins Saraceno’s journey towards Aerocene; Museo Aero Solar: Territoria 4: il grande balzo, a giant Museo Aero Solar flew on air in Prato, IT
2010 During his residency at the Atelier Calder in Saché, France in 2010, Tomás Saraceno rose carried by an aerosolar sculpture using only the heat of the sun.
After the success, during a festival at the Centro Cultural España Córdoba, Saraceno himself flew up into the air attached to an uncertified, tethered sculpture. When landing the artist broke his back. Two surgeries later, it became clear that a safer, certified system of construction would need to be devised for any future flights.
The Float Predictor started as a collaborative project with Aerocene community members, artist Tomás Saraceno and meteorologist Lodovica Illari at the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS); together with the support of Leila Kinney from the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST).
The Aerocene community starts to grow;
Bruno Latour invites Saraceno to present Museo Aero Solar and Aerocene to The Anthropocene Monument project, Toulouse, FRA.
Museo Aero Solar is presented in the frame of Development & Climate Days, Red Cross Climate Conference with Pablo Suarez, Lima, PR and
Saraceno's residency at the French Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) begins. Aerocene sculptures are an homage to scientific experiments that the CNES initiated in the late 1970s, launching infrared radiation balloons (Montgolfière InfraRouge – MIR).
Deep Space - First ever fully-solar Human Tethered Flight in White Sands, NM, USA takes place. The Aerocene Float Predictor continues its development as a web program that gives access to virtual flights and allows millions to virtually travel the planet, share experiences, experiments and flight data, all from the premise of travelling around the earth, free from borders, free from fossil fuels.
During the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP21 in Paris, Saraceno launched the Aerocene Foundation, and he exhibited two giant spherical flying sculptures at the Grand Palais during the summit.
Aerocene Gemini - the First unmanned Aerosolar Free Flight, is launched from Schönfeld, Berlin and landed in Biskupiec, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland.
Aerosolar Journeys - Tethered Flight Performances takes place in the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, in conjunction with the exhibition 163,000 Light Years, MARCO, MX.
Aerocene Gemini - the First unmanned Aerosolar Free Flight, is launched from Schönfeld, Berlin and landed in Biskupiec, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland.
Aerosolar Journeys - Tethered Flight Performances takes place in the Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia , ARG, in conjunction with the exhibition 163,000 Light Years, MARCO, MX.
Tomás Saraceno is invited to speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos twice, presenting Aerocene mobility. Aerocene has been endorsed by Christiana Figueres, the Costa Rican environmentalist who drafted the Paris Climate Accord as well as by then U.S. Vice-President Al Gore, SW;
Tomás Saraceno presents Aerocene at TedTalk - Would you live in a floating city in the sky?
The performative flight Tata Inti –father sun– takes place. A collective Performance in which multiple, tethered aerosolar sculptures drew aeroglyphs with the air, from the Salinas Grandes, Jujuy, ARG
TEN-T - Highest manned fully-solar Tethered Flight achieved during Aerocene presentation at the European Commission Biennial conference on Transportation and Mobility, embracing an invitation from the by then European Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc, Ljubljana, SLO; during the symposium days of ON AIR Live with... - Successful experiment with reflective surface enhancing the lift of the manned fully-solar Tethered Flight, achieved during ON AIR Carte Blanche to Tomás Saraceno, Paris, FRA;
During the MIT Science festival - Citizen Science - Aerocene Sculpture Performance and Interactive Display Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
2019 Munich Landing...Aerocene Festival - Manned Tethered Flight Test, Aerosolar Pilot Courses and unmanned Free Flight achieved during Aerocene Festival, Munich, DEU
FLY WITH AEROCENE PACHA - On 28th January 2020, in Salinas Grandes, Jujuy, Argentina, the artist Tomás Saraceno launched Fly with Aerocene Pacha, a huge, balloon-like flying sculpture. For the first time in history, a human being floated into the sky with only the warmth of the sun and the air we all breathe, without fossil fuels, solar panels, lithium batteries or helium. A synthesis of art, science and environmental activism, and the culmination of over 20 years of experimental, collaborative work, Fly with Aerocene Pacha sets 32 world records for the first fully solar, human free flight, certified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).
January, 2023, The Alfarcito Gathering, Jujuy, Argentina - In January 2023, the Aerocene Foundation organized — together with the indigenous communities of Salinas Grandes y Laguna de Guayatayoc — The Alfarcito Gathering in Jujuy, Argentina, with more than 25 philosophers, environmental lawyers, writers, activists and artists, and culminated with the communities declaring the salinas as a subject of rights. During the Alfarcito Gathering, news channels from around the world turned their focus to Alfarcito, Jujuy, and their coverage of our Alfarcito Gathering reached international primetime evening news, on, among many others, Deutsche Welle, Al Jazeera, ARD and ARTE.
May, 2023, Tomás Saraceno in Collaboration: Web(s) of Life, Serpentine Galleries, London - The Aerocene is an active collaborator in the exhibition Web(s) of Life at the Serpentine Galleries, London, with the Aerocene film Fly with Pacha, into the Aerocene, premiering for the opening. During the exhibition, the second Aerocene Newspaper is also distributed to visitors.
June, 2023, Towards an Ecosocial Energy Transition: A Conversation and Manifesto at the Goethe Institute, London - In conjunction with the exhibition Tomás Saraceno in Collaboration: Web(s) of Life, Tomás Saraceno is in conversation with Verónica Chávez, President of the Community of Santuario Tres Pozos; human rights lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck; writer Graciela Speranza; sociologist Maristella Svampa, co-author of the seminal 2023 “Manifesto for an Ecosocial Energy Transition from the Peoples of the South”. Following Aerocene's long term collaboration with the indigenous communities of Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc, members of the Alfarcito Gathering join to discuss the struggles for environmental justice, land rights and a ‘just energy transition’ – an equitable and just approach to clean energy.Presented in collaboration with Goethe-Institut London.
July, 2023, Pope Francis receives Aerocene Newspaper II - As part of the Pope Meets Artists programme at the Vatican, Tomás Saraceno hand delivers to Pope Francios a copy of the second edition of the Aerocene Newspaper, along with a letter written by the indigenous communities of Salinas Grandes y Laguna de Guayatayoc, requesting a meeting with the Pope to discuss their grave concerns regarding ongoing lithium extraction on their ancestral lands.
August, 2023, CCK Fly with Pacha, into the Aerocene - The Aerocene community premieres Fly with Pacha, into the Aerocene at the Centro Cultural Kirchner (CCK), Buenos Aires. After the screening, the Aerocene community hosted a panel discussion with representatives from the Indigenous Communities, Verónica Chávez and Erika Cañari, philosopher Maristella Svampa, environmental lawyer Enrique Viale and writer Claudia Aboaf.
