ENESS installs inflatable boulders in bologna's piazza maggior

ENESS fills Piazza Maggiore with inflatable geology

ENESS’ Iwagumi Air Scape unfolds across Piazza Maggiore in Bologna, marking one of the few contemporary artworks to occupy the 13th-century square in its long history. The large-scale installation transforms the civic heart of the city into a field of luminous, air-filled ‘boulders’ that appear geological in mass.

More than 10,000 people gathered around the work, yet, despite the crowds, the atmosphere reportedly settled into an unexpected calm, as visitors moved quietly among the forms. Previously presented at i Light Singapore along the Marina Bay foreshore and later at Prahran Square in Melbourne, the project arrives in Bologna with an established trajectory of adapting its rock compositions to sharply different urban settings. The team draws from the Japanese concept of iwagumi, a tradition of composed rock arrangements that emphasize balance, stillness, and reverence toward nature. Here, that sensibility is translated into inflatable volumes that evoke immense stone formations. By day, the matte surfaces read as oversized fragments of landscape displaced into the urban grid. By night, they emit shifting color and a responsive soundscape inspired by frogs, birds, and bats, introducing subtle acoustic life into the square.

all images courtesy of ENESS

Monumentality staged without permanence

In Iwagumi Air Scape, the Melbourne-based art and technology studio operates through contrast. Its soft, air-supported structures suggest thousands of tons of rock, yet they are lightweight and fully dismantled at the end of each presentation, with materials sustainably broken down. In Bologna, the lilac glow of the inflatables interacts with the surrounding architectural lighting, creating a layered dialogue between the historic fabric and the temporary intervention.

Visitors are encouraged to circulate, lean, photograph, and even embrace the forms. The scale invites proximity rather than distance. In aerial views, the installation reads as a clustered geological event within the rigid geometry of the square. At ground level, it becomes a series of intimate encounters with surface, light, and sound.

the unusual site brings to mind the development of cities and its toll on our natural world

shifting contexts, consistent principles

Iwagumi Air Scape is designed as a contextually flexible work. For i Light Singapore, it was installed within an expansive green space, rising like an isolated formation in an open field. At Prahran Square in Melbourne, it confronted dense urban surroundings, offering a temporary counterpoint to high-rise congestion. In Bologna, positioned among church-built structures and centuries-old masonry, the installation takes on additional readings, connected to deep time, meditation, prayerfulness, and collective awe.

Across these settings, ENESS maintains the core design principles of iwagumi, including asymmetry, balance, and the relationship between elements. The project’s adaptability lies not in changing its identity, but in allowing each site to recalibrate its meaning.

every iteration of Iwagumi Air Scape is sensitively integrated into the site