User:SolarBell/sandbox/Tomás Saraceno

Tomás Saraceno (San Miguel de Tucumán, 1973) is an Argentinean artist, architect and performer.

After spending his early childhood in Italy, Saraceno returned to Argentina, where he studied Architecture and Art. From 1992 to 1999, Sarceno studied Art and Architecture at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). From 1999 to 2000, he did postgraduate studies at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes Ernesto de la Carvoca in Buenos Aires. In 2001 he enrolled at the Städelschule in Frankfurt (at that time directed by Daniel Birnbaum, curator of the 53rd Venice Biennale). In 2003, he then studied at the IUAV University of Venice. Within a few years he became one of the foremost contemporary artists, contributing installations to the Venice Biennale in 2001, 2003 and 2009, as well as to the Sao Paulo Art Biennial in 2006.

His artwork has been exhibited in dozens of museum around the world. Overarching themes in his work, as well as in the production of his work, include the will to overcome geographical, behavioral, and social barriers. He is also interested in the use of technology for the research for sustainable models for humans and the planet, overcoming boundaries between disciplines of knowledge, and the collaborative model of research and production applied to all knowledge fields. Deeply influenced by the utopic architecture of the 1960’s, Saraceno’s artistic practice revolves around the incessant research of technical, visual and planning solutions for the creation of suspended and floating structures capable of offering low environmental impact life styles with high potential for mobility and social interaction.

Saraceno has created some “visionary” installations, in addition to videos, photos and collages, directly related to space, architecture and landscape. The essential element is an interaction with the public inherent to the artwork that suggests the possibility of future developments in the works. As points of departure, Saraceno turns to a combination of scientific and artistic studies: from alternative energies to ethology, psychology, and engineering of materials in order to arrive at sociological studies. The most recurring structure present in Saraceno’s work is the spider web, as seen in installations such as Cloud Cities/ Air-Port-City (Sao Paulo Art Biennial 2006, Observatory/air-Port-City at the Hayward Gallery of London) or In Orbit. The last two suggest new possible “urban utopias” made of inhabitable and sustainable flying modules. The installations at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, in 2011-2012, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 2012-2013, had evolved from of Cloud Cities, and had also been inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s Cupola Geodetica. In 2009, Saraceno participated in the International Space Studies Program of the NASA. Thanks to his research and the technical solutions he achieved during his working years, he succeeded in registering real patents, such as a new application of “aerogel”, a very thin and heat resistant material. ...