A sculpture that can allegedly undertake the most sustainable airborne journey around the world is unveiled during the Paris United Nations Climate Change Conference next week.
Argentinian artist Tomás Saracenos, 42, says that Aerocene, a series of air-fuelled balloons, only requires the sun’s heat and infrared radiation from the Earth’s surface to fly.
Presenting a prototype for the first time at Paris’ Grande Palais on 4 December, Saracenos, who won the prestigious Calder Prize at the 2009 Venice Biennale, hopes the project provokes questions and answers to “our current and troublesome dependency on fossil and hydrocarbon fuels and pollution”.
The project is accompanied by a series of workshops at which visitors are invited to turn used plastic bags into a “flying museum” called Museo Aerosolar, which to date has reused over 30 000 plastic bags from 21 countries.
Organisers said: “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.”
A symposium at Paris’ Palais de Tokyo accompanies the project on 6 December. Free access to both the symposium and workshop is offered to anyone who brings ten plastic bags, glued together in a single sheet.
The United Nations Conference on Climate Change – or COP21 – takes place between 30 November and 11 December in Paris, France. As of Tuesday, 24 November, 147 Heads of State and Government had accepted the invitation.
ZEFFADELICA 