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Utopia exists until it is created
Optimistic and enthusiastic, inspired by ecological
philosophy and visionary developments of theorist
architects like Peter Cook, Yona Friedman or Buckminster
Fuller, Tomás Saraceno pursues the idea “of a creatable
utopia” and invents luminous installations, kinetic
sculptures, suspended gardens and even inflatable
architecture. Conceived as “vehicles lighter than air”, these
floating installations are supplied by solar energy and
made with original materials such as Aéro gel, an
extremely fine film, specially conceived and patented by
the artist. A trained architect, Saraceno continuously
reaches for the sky while keeping his feet firmly on the
ground. Through his works, real syntheses of engineering,
physics and art, he throws into question the static model of
town development, as well as the individualist dimension
of our modern communities. In Air-Port-City, for example,
an experimental concept developed some years ago which
has been evolving throughout the projects, he offers
dwelling and living areas through a system of modules
which are floating in the air. Spinning out the cloud
metaphor, he questions the notions of territory and
frontiers, as well as of sustainable urban and social
development, through work which is as poetic as it is
critical, and of a beauty which is sometimes quite
dazzling.
For his exhibition for the third chapter of the Habiter cycle
at Mudam (until 3 January 2010, curated by Marie-Noëlle
Farcy), Tomás Saraceno
presents the experimental
project carried out in 2008 in the vast landscapes of his
native Argentina, an experience which the photographs and
films produced on the spot and co-produced by Mudam
show. With a passion for hang gliding, he has orchestrated,
with his team, a dance of three large inflatable structures
in the sky, to which are secured a tent in the guise of a
rudimentary settlement. These monumental balloons
cannot resist adventure, ever carried by the wind. In
response to this project, suspended in the sky of the Grand
Hall, one of the pieces of inflatable modular architecture,
Air-Port-City, is spread out. Floating within interlaced
rigging, it incarnates this pursuit of floating dwelling places
of the future.
