Floating UtopiasFloating Utopias
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Floating Utopias

25 May 2019 – 29 Sep 2019

Floating Utopias is a playful and poetic exhibition that explores the social history of inflatable objects, showing how, over the decades, they have been used in art, architecture and activism.

Ever since the first hot-air balloon ascended into the skies in the 18th century, inflatable objects have inspired the public's imagination, generating utopian dreams of castles in the sky, floating laboratories and cloud cities. Floating Utopias reveals the impact inflatables continue to have on our collective imagination. The exhibition juxtaposes historical and contemporary works, featuring over 40 artworks by international and local artists, as well as hands-on workshops and interventions in urban space.

Inflatables embody a transformative aspect in themselves: formless bundles of material instantly become voluminous spaces. Their light, mobile and soft qualities entice people to be both dazzled spectators and playful participants.

Floating Utopias shows how inflatable objects have opened up new technological possibilities through history. With the invention of the hot air balloon, humanity was able to leave the confines of the ground for the first time and experience the Earth from above. Floating Utopias explores how this pivotal invention shaped the way we understand the world and our place in it. The exhibition shows how inflatable objects were used the first part of the 20th century, in socialist and capitalist mass parades, and how, in the 1960s, a new generation of architects began using inflatable structures in a search for new approaches to designing space and alternative ways of living. Floating Utopias also explores how inflatable structures can help us rethink our relationship with the environment.

Inflatables invite us to be playful and to reclaim public space; they help to forge communities and promote participation. Their disruptive, ephemeral presence challenges power structures, by reminding us that after all, everything is temporary.

Floating Utopias in Singapore is co-curated by Artúr van Balen, Fabiola Bierhoff and Anna Hoetjes, and the ArtScience Museum team.

Full list of artists featured

Ahmet Öğüt, Albert Tissandier, Anna Hoetjes, Ant Farm, Artúr van Balen, Daniel Vierge, Dawn Ng, Eventstructure Research Group, Franco Mazzucchelli, Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, Gaspard-Étienne Robert, Graham Stevens,  Jakob Kaiserer, Jean-Paul Jungmann, José de Miguel Prada Pool, Luigi Rados, Luke Jerram, Momoyo Torimitsu, , Tanero Oki Architects, The Yes Men, Thomas Baldwin, Tomás Saraceno, Tools for Action, UFO
Highlights
  • Floating UtopiasFloating Utopias

    Momoyo Torimitsu
    Somehow I Don’t Feel Comfortable, 2000

    In this artwork, two giant, pink bunnies face one another within a confined space. The work initially appears to be whimsical and playful, but is it?

    Momoyo Torimitsu is a Japanese artist based in New York who works with sculpture, installation and performance. Much of her work critiques media stereotypes of cuteness and happiness, using both irony and humour. For Torimitsu, bunnies like this are considered stereotypical examples of cuteness, something sweet and innocent that should be protected. Supersizing them distorts and perverts their cuteness, creating something altogether more unsettling. She writes, “this oversized bunny I created that looks down on you doesn't seem cute anymore — it’s kind of disturbing”.

    The installation also acts as social critique of the constricted nature of modern living in many large cities in Asia. In Japan, small apartments are often called ‘rabbit hutches’, a derogatory reference to their small size. Torimitsu’s work draws attention to the constraints and strictures of urban life, by presenting us with cute, but cramped and uncomfortable, creatures.

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    Dawn Ng
    WALTER, 2010

    No exhibition of inflatable art in this country would be complete without one of its most iconic inflatable residents, WALTER, by Singaporean artist Dawn Ng.

    Unlike the work of Momoyo Torimitsu in the previous gallery, Ng’s sculpture of a large, curious rabbit was designed to be seen outdoors in the cityscape of Singapore. As the photographs in this gallery show, over the past decade, WALTER has appeared near apartment blocks, shophouses, hawker stalls, convenience stores, playgrounds and MRT stations, drawing attention to some of Singapore’s familiar, yet overlooked spaces. Ng notes that WALTER, allows others to discover the extraordinary in their everyday by looking at their surroundings as if children again.

    Ng works with collage, photography, illustration and sculpture. Having lived a nomadic lifestyle, much of her work is rooted in location, playing with notions of home, identity and nostalgia. Like many artists who work in inflatable media, her artwork acts as a tool to disrupt everyday lived experience, inviting us to reconsider the character and charm of the places in which we live.

  • Tomás Saraceno
    Aerocene Explorer, 2016

    Tomás Saraceno’s Aerocene project was conceived to raise awareness about the state of the Earth’s atmosphere and the need to evolve beyond the use of fossil fuels for air travel. The project consists of lighter-than-air sculptures powered by the heat of the sun. Aerocene calls for the deconstruction of aerial borders and the preservation of our air.

    Aerocene Explorer is a backpack containing one of these sculptures — a solar balloon — and a range of technological devices. The backpack and accompanying kit enables anyone to launch their own solar-powered balloon and is designed to be activated by local communities who can use the floating sculpture to collect atmospheric and meteorological data, as well as to document global air currents. Harking back to the pioneering balloons of the 19th century, Aerocene reminds us that the utopian vision of emission-free air travel is already possible, albeit at a small scale.

    Tomás Saraceno is an Argentinian artist who originally trained as an architect. He uses insights from engineering, physics, aeronautics and materials science in his work, and is known for his large-scale, interactive installations and floating sculptures.

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    Luke Jerram
    Museum of the Moon, 2019

    Luke Jerram’s large inflatable sculpture of the Moon, made using state of the art scientific images, closes the exhibition.  Installed to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing by NASA astronauts in 1969, the artwork, invites us to contemplate the Moon. Throughout human history, the Moon has acted as a cultural mirror to our beliefs, understanding and ways of seeing. Over the centuries, the moon has been interpreted as a god and as a planet. It has been used as a timekeeper, calendar and to aid nighttime navigation. Throughout history the moon has inspired artists, poets, scientists, writers and musicians the world over.  The Museum of the Moon allows us to contemplate the Moon today, using the latest moon science.

    The artwork has been created in partnership with the UK Space Agency, University of Bristol, and the Association for Science and Discovery Center.

    The artwork displayed here has been specifically commissioned by ArtScience Museum for this exhibition.

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    Ahmet Öğüt
    Castle of Vooruit, 2012

    Castle of Vooruit by Turkish artist Ahmet Ögüt, explores a complex set of utopian ideas in one single surreal image.

    Castle of Vooruit takes inspiration from the socialist history of the Belgian city of Ghent, where the installation was first displayed in 2012. On top of the floating structure is Vooruit, a cooperative centre in Ghent where the city’s working class assembled from the end of the 19th century until the 1970s.

    The artwork also references a famous painting by the Surrealist artist, Renè Magritte called The Castle of the Pyrenees. The painting depicts an immense floating rock with a small castle on top of it. Ögüt’s floating sculpture replaces the opulent private castle with a social centre, a clear political comment.

    Ahmet Ögüt works in a wide range of media including photography, video and installation. His socially engaged artworks are often located in public spaces.

Exhibition & Programmes
Engaging the Community

Signals 2.0

As part of the opening programmes for Floating Utopias on 25 May 2019, ArtScience Museum engaged the public in Signals 2.0, a site-specific experimental performance, which took place at the Marina Bay waterfront promenade.

Specially developed by Tomás Espinosa and Artúr van Balen from the artist group, Tools for Action, in collaboration with the choreographer Susan Sentler, this unique nocturnal performance explores new forms of public assembly and collective communication using 22 portable inflatable light sculptures. Students and alumni of LASALLE College of the Arts School of Dance and Theatre and McNally School of Fine Arts will communicate with each other through these wearable light sculptures.

 

 

 

 

Museo Aero Solar

ArtScience Museum launched the Museo Aero Solar, a large flying sculpture made entirely of recycled plastic bags at Marina Barrage on 7 September!

The Museo Aero Solar is part of Floating Utopias, and is the result of collective collaboration with visitors contributing plastic bags and working collectively on the plastic bag patchwork.

About the Partners
The exhibition is organized by ArtScience Museum and Floating Utopias Foundation in collaboration with the neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst
nGbK logo

neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (nGbK)

The exhibition Floating Utopias was originally developed and exhibited by the Floating Utopias project group at the neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (nGbK) in Berlin in 2018. The nGbK was founded in 1969 as an art organization with a grass-roots structure. Today it’s one of Germany’s most significant and largest art societies. The unique structure of the nGbK enables its members to directly influence its thematic orientation: exhibitions, research projects, event series and publications are developed in interdisciplinary project groups and supervised from the initial idea to the final implementation. 
Floating Utopias Logo

Stichting Floating Utopias

In order to allow the exhibition Floating Utopias to embark on a global tour, Stichting Floating Utopias (SFU) was brought to life in 2018 in Amsterdam by a group of artists and curators. The foundation aims to underline the unique and underexposed social impact of inflatables. With a traveling exhibition, educational projects and a growing archive, SFU brings to light the cultural history and innovative power of inflatable art, architecture & design.

The original exhibition was curated by Artúr van Balen, Fabiola Bierhoff, Alexander Dunst, Anna Hoetjes, Jantien Roozenburg and Hannah Zindel. Today SFU's projects and exhibitions are developed and carried out by Artúr van Balen, Fabiola Bierhoff and Anna Hoetjes.