balloon museum’s pop air immerses visitors in whimsical inflatable universe in milan

pop air exhibition lands in milan

From a friendly tribe of giant zoomorphic figures to multimedia psychedelic environments, a whimsical helium-filled world of playful installations and colorful displays is set to take over Superstudio in Milan. The traveling Pop Air exhibition created by Rome’s Balloon Museum will be floating to a stop in the vibrant Italian city from December 23 to February 12, 2023, to welcome the new year and immerse design lovers in a series of interactive and ethereal spaces.

The exhibition, centered around the theme of ‘Air’, brings together oversized inflatable artworks by eighteen artists and art collectives from across the world. Altogether, Pop Air reflects on fantastical artistic expressions and proposes a dynamic and social relationship between environments, individuals, and design.

journey through interactive inflatable environments

Configured as an invitation to exchange and socialization activated through artistic performance, the Pop Air exhibition takes visitors on a journey through dreamlike installations filled with enormous zoomorphic and anthropomorphic creatures, multimedia performances, metaphysical, nebulous atmospheres and surreal environments. The balloon installations draw visitors in with their unconventional forms and kaleidoscopic arrays of color and sound, creating a new space of physical, digital, and cultural socialization. From the moment they enter, the audience is positioned at the heart of an interactive, experiential journey that engages their senses, generates wonder and sparks reflection, and curiosity.

Fostering interactivity between audience and space

Interactive environments marked by pop colors and ironic implications welcome the visitor along ‘Balloon Street’. As they enter, they are immersed into the colorful and all-encompassing environments of art collective Hyperstudio and duo Quiet Ensemble in which sea, sky, and rain take on a new surreal guise. Both creators investigate nature and the observation of the balance between chaos and stillness with their respective ‘Hypercosmo’ and ‘A quiet storm’. Further ahead, a multiplied and psychedelic universe enveloped in rarefied atmospheres welcomes the viewer in ‘Never ending stories’ by studio Motorefisico, where the perception of the place changes with the movements of the individual.

The interaction between audience and space is further explored in ‘Giallo 368’ by the Penique Productions collective. The disorienting site-specific intervention entirely envelops a large room and continually alters its perception, transforming the space into a living architecture animated by air generated by fans. 

Artist Karina Smigla-Bobinski, inspired by neuroscience discoveries about the self-configuration of the brain, presents the unprecedented ‘Polyheadra’, an interactive installation that triggers a direct dialogue with the public. Called upon to actively participate in the configuration of the work, the viewer can assemble inflatable tubes of different sizes in ever-changing ways and document the result through photographs and videos.

Air becomes an architectural element with ‘Tholos’ by collective Plastique Fantastique, a tribute to the temples of antiquity, revisited in an inflatable key. The installation, unveiled as a world premiere on the occasion of the exhibition, ironically reflects on geometry and forms by revealing unseen elements made of mirrored and transparent materials.

Objects of everyday life and their interaction with space are investigated by visual artist Cyril Lancelin with his large, winding ‘Knot’ whose beginning and end cannot be perceived, and by Brazil-based Geraldo Zamproni with ‘Volatile Structure’ wherein large red pillows seem to hold up the surrounding structure in a perpetual tension between content and context.

Similarly exploring the relation between scale and space through unexpected forms, sculptor Max Streicher presents ‘Silenus’, a sleeping giant of monumental dimensions that shows the viewer his vulnerability. Through inflatable technology he seems to breathe or shake slowly, as before awakening. In studio Eness’ ‘Airship Orchesta’ and Rub Kandy’s ‘Ginjos’, tribes of oversized inflatable characters enliven the exhibition path, towering over visitors to engulf them with their bright hues and playful forms. Visitors can stroll among these unexpectedly friendly monsters while enjoying an interactive sound and light experience.

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project info:

name: Pop Air by Balloon Museum

location: Superstudio, Milan, Italy

dates: December 23, 2022 — February 12, 2023