How might we visualize the inextricable web of space, time, and matter, enormous concepts that are so systemic they can almost become abstract? Rendering these connections in a tangible, accessible, and even participatory manner continues to ground Tomás Saraceno’s multidisciplinary practice. Born in Argentina and based in Berlin, the artist plays with scale and spectacle to draw our attention to the life-giving ecosystems in which we’re all bound, merging art, architecture, and science into alluring works.
At Haus der Kunst, Saraceno’s ecological and collaborative projects take center stage for a sweeping presentation titled Ancestral Futures. Spanning more than two decades, the solo exhibition emerges from the central premise that the knowledge we’ve gained in the past is critical to understanding and creating our shared tomorrow.
Called “the art world’s favorite arachnophile,” Saraceno frequently returns to the spider and its web as a metaphor for and example of the networks that undergird life. Interactive installations invite visitors to crawl through sprawling structures, while the decade-long Webs of At-tent(s)ion series welcomes several species of spiders into the museum to spin their sticky structures inside boxes. Continually returning to the web is a clear reminder that we’re all connected to one another and that nature’s processes are cyclical.
Saraceno also adapts his interest in solar-powered air balloons for the museum. An immersive cavern made of crowd-sourced plastic bags inflates with the help of willing visitors who ride stationary bicycles to power the project. Others can wander inside, where they become enveloped by a colorful patchwork of brands and remnants of humanity’s culture of disposability and consumerism.
Perhaps the most impressive works in the exhibition are those created as part of Saraceno’s ongoing collaboration with Indigenous communities of Red Atacama, in the basin of Salinas Grandes in northwestern Argentina. Eleven weavers loaned their handmade blankets, which are presented together as a vibrant, soft space for lounging at the show’s opening. Immersion into the landscape of Salinas Grandes follows with galleries filled with sand, water, salt, and more.
Several works reference The Sanctuary of Water, the multi-pronged project Saraceno and the people of Salinas Grandes are undertaking together. The collaboration, the museum says, “emerges in solidarity with the communities’
resistance to lithium mining in one of the world’s largest lithium-rich regions. Their struggle highlights the continuing legacy of colonial exploitation: While international corporations profit from resources such as lithium—essential for technologies including electric cars—the environmental and social costs are borne by local communities.”
As a permanent land work, “The Sanctuary of Water” is organized around a large reflective pond that captures the sky above, skewing boundaries between land and air. “In our worldview,” says the collaborative project’s website, “Pacha names the inseparable weave of space, time, and matter. It is one living body, sustained by the water that flows through them all.”
If you’re in Munich, you can see Ancestral Futures through February 7. Otherwise, explore more of the artist’s collaboration with the communities of Salinas Grandes on the project’s website.
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