AEROCENE PACHA:
ONE SHORT STEP IN THE AIR, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR THE PLANET AND ITS CLIMATE
Tomás Saraceno
Together with representatives from the 33 indigenous communities of the Salinas Grandes, the launch has been accompanied by a ceremony honoring Aerocene Pacha’s namesake—the spatiotemporal connection of the subterrestrial, terrestrial and celestial realms in Incan cosmovision, uniting what lies below the Earth’s surface with the furthest reaches of space.
These communities, whose livelihoods are threatened by lithium extraction in their region, say:
Read AEROCENIC STRUGGLES, the latest reflection from sociologist Maristella Svampa, re-thinking how a different movement is possible.
Indigenous nations across the planet account for less than 5 percent of the global population while protecting 80 percent of its biodiversity; it is their struggles that form the theory and praxis of fighting against the degradation and loss of life on this planet.
Aerocene Pacha carried in its cargo the hopes of humanity moving beyond the Capitalocene era. Lifted only by the sun, carried only by the winds, the free flight embodies an ethical commitment to the atmosphere and planet Earth, towards re-understanding how to “fly with our feet on the ground”.
Museo Aero Solar community emerges
Tomás Saraceno flew 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
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
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)
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 presented in the frame of Development & Climate Days, Red Cross Climate Conference with Pablo Suarez, Lima, PR
Saraceno's residency at the French Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES). 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
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
The Launch of Aerocene Foundation at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP21, Paris Saraceno launched the Aerocene Foundation during the climate summit in Paris in 2015, where he exhibited two giant spherical flying sculptures at the Grand Palais during the summit
Aerocene Gemini - First unmanned Aerosolar Free Flight, launched from Schönfeld, Berlin and landed in Biskupiec, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland
Aerosolar Journey Tethered Flight Performances 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?
Tata Inti –father sun– 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
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
MIT Science festival - Citizen Science - Aerocene Sculpture Performance and Interactive Display Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Munich Landing...Aerocene Festival - Manned Tethered Flight Test, Aerosolar Pilot Courses and unmanned Free Flight achieved during Aerocene Festival, Munich, DEU
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 set six world records for the first fully solar, human free flight, certified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI)
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
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)
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 presented in the frame of Development & Climate Days, Red Cross Climate Conference with Pablo Suarez, Lima, PR
Saraceno's residency at the French Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES). 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
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
The Launch of Aerocene Foundation at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP21, Paris Saraceno launched the Aerocene Foundation during the climate summit in Paris in 2015, where he exhibited two giant spherical flying sculptures at the Grand Palais during the summit
Aerocene Gemini - First unmanned Aerosolar Free Flight, launched from Schönfeld, Berlin and landed in Biskupiec, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland
Aerosolar Journey Tethered Flight Performances 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?
Tata Inti –father sun– 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
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
MIT Science festival - Citizen Science - Aerocene Sculpture Performance and Interactive Display Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Munich Landing...Aerocene Festival - Manned Tethered Flight Test, Aerosolar Pilot Courses and unmanned Free Flight achieved during Aerocene Festival, Munich, DEU
