For more than two decades, Tomás Saraceno has imagined, built, and floated Cloud Cities: evolving constellations of interconnected sculptures that propose a re-imagining of the cosmic web of life beyond anthropocentrism. Emerging from his long-standing research into alternative urbanisms, the project has developed into an artistic ecology in which each work forms part of a larger imaginary and a grounded, site-specific proposal. Constructed from geometric modules inspired by the Weaire–Phelan structure, as well as the morphologies of foam, aggregating soap bubbles, and the silken threads of spider webs, the works form suspended constellations that connect the microscopic to the cosmic, recalling the structure of the observable universe. These cloud-like architectures,
woven with delicate filaments and asterism-like geometries, evoke the interconnectedness of life on Earth and the cosmos, reminding us of our entanglement within a vast, interdependent network of relations.
Saraceno’s Cloud Cities project has taken shape through monumental installations, including 'Cloud Cities' (2011) at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; 'On the Roof: Cloud City' (2012) at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the permanent installations 'Cloud Cities Barcelona' (2022) above Torres Glòries, and 'Cloud Cities New York' (2026) in the new Terminal One of JFK Airport. Additionally, through aerosolar sculptures lifted by the heat of the sun, 'Fly with Aerocene Pacha' (2020) set 32 world records in Jujuy, Argentina, carrying a message written by the Communities of Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc in the name of more than just cycles of water and life.
Biography
Tomás Saraceno (b. 1973) is an Argentina-born, Berlin-based artist whose projects devise platforms for ecosocial, participatory, and installative encounters that host and amplify regenerative forms of knowledge. Connecting across scales and spectra—from the inaudible vibrations communicated along a spider’s silken thread to the aerostatics of floating sculptures, and the filamentary cosmic web—his work builds bridges of "response-ability," encouraging audiences towards deeper reciprocity and attunement with other beings in the web(s) of life. He has exhibited internationally at major institutions including The Met, Palais de Tokyo, and Serpentine Galleries; held residencies at MIT, CNES, and NASA; given talks at WEF, TED, World Science Festival, and Harvard; and
staged interventions with COP20, COP21, and COP26.
Throughout his career, Saraceno has founded numerous project communities that transcend disciplinary lines, borders, and species. With the Museo Aero Solar (2007–) and the Aerocene Foundation (2015–)—an international movement for eco-social justice —he has facilitated fossil fuel-free flight, breaking 32 world records for the most sustainable flight in human history, and activated workshops, festivals, and exhibitions across 152 cities in 36 countries. With Arachnophilia (2018–), he has advanced studies into spider web architectures, biotremology, and interspecies communication, in collaboration with institutions such as the Max Planck Institute, TU Darmstadt, and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. From developing the novel Spider Web Scan to forming
the world’s largest archive of three-dimensional spider/webs, the research group’s work—featured in Nature and PNAS—expands engagement with arachnid ecologies, inviting a shift from Arachnophobia to Arachnophilia.
