The collaboration between Manifattura Tabacchi and Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi continues with Tomás Saraceno. Aria at Palazzo Strozzi, which will soon reopen to the public. 

A world exists in which mankind’s behaviour is so invasive that it actually has the power to modify the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth, so much so that mankind becomes a geological agent.  This world is called the Anthropocene, we reside within it and we have moulded it with our choices and actions. There is another world, however, which belongs to those who think outside of the paradigms and want to put big ideas into practice. This world is called the Aerocene: an interdisciplinary artistic community which works with new expressions of ecological sensitivity, with the aim of bringing about a new ethical collaboration with the atmosphere and the environment, in a new era free of fossil fuels.

Tomás Saraceno is a visionary and polyhedric artist whose research combines art with natural and social sciences, working in close contact with scientists and activists to make this new world possible. 

Aerocene is therefore a proposal, one that not only invites us to use our imaginations but also to develop new models of mobility in practical terms, investing in a direct relationship with some of the simplest and cleanest forms of energy that nature has put at our disposal; the Sun and the wind. If flying without polluting was a dream for the Anthropocene, for the Aerocene community is has become a reality, with sculptures using aero-solar technologies that allow them to take flight. Tomás Saraceno addresses his invitation to everyone who cares about the atmosphere. It’s up to us to accept it.

Tomás Saraceno’s practice moves toward the entanglement of diverse threads of thought, including art, life science and the social sciences. Enmeshed at the junction of these worlds, his floating sculptures, community projects and interactive installations propose and explore new, sustainable ways of inhabiting and sensing the environment.

In 2007 Saraceno activated projects aimed towards an ethical collaboration with the atmosphere, including Museo Aero Solar. These projects grew into the international, interdisciplinary artistic community Aerocene, which seeks to create an environment free from borders, free from fossil fuels.

His profound interest in spiders and their webs led to the formation of the Arachnophilia team at Studio Tomás Saraceno, engendering the creation of Arachnophilia.net and the Arachnomancy App. Through these platforms Saraceno invites people from around the globe to weave the web of interspecies understanding and take part in the challenge of Mapping Against Extinction.

Saraceno lectures in institutions worldwide, and directed the Institute of Architecture-related Art (IAK) at Braunschweig University of Technology, Germany (2014–2016). He has held residencies at Centre National d’Études Spatiales (2014–2015), MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (2012–ongoing) and Atelier Calder (2010), among others.

Lisa Signorile was born in Bari, where she graduated in Biology. In the UK she received a Master in Forestry Protection and Conservation and she did her PhD on population genetics at Imperial College London. Since 2007 she has written the ‘Orologiaio Miope’ (The Short-sighted Watchmaker), a blog on the ugliest, strangest, and lesser-known members of the animal world – now hosted on the platform of online magazine Le Scienze. A book of the same name emerged from the blog, published by Codice and translated into German, Catalan, and Belarussian. In 2013 her book ‘Il Viaggio e la Necessità’ (Journey and Necessity) was published by Scienza Express, looking at the journeys made by animals throughout history. ‘Il Coccodrillo come fa – La vita sessuale degli animali’ (How does the crocodile do it? – The sex lives of the animals) was published by Codice in 2014. In her professional life she works in genetics and ecology. Since 2014 she has written on science for National Geographic Italia, where she has a monthly column, as well as for various other national and international newspapers.

Lisa Signorile on Facebook and on Twitter.