The starting point of the exhibition Tomás Saraceno. Aria is Thermodynamic Constellation, a monumental site-specific installation created by Tomás Saraceno for the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi as a metaphor of the new age of solidarity between man and the environment expressed by Aerocene, an interdisciplinary artistic community set up by the artist himself.
Consisting of three large hanging spheres made of transparent or reflecting foil, the work is the result of Saraceno’s experimentation with real hot-air balloons capable of flying by solar energy alone. These are, in effect, the prototypes for aerosolar balloons capable of flying over long distances at a height of 20 to 40 kilometres, floating around a world free of borders and of fossil fuels.
The installation urges us to rethink the way we inhabit our world in a poetic and collective vein, transforming the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi into a physical and philosophical platform in an attempt to propose a change of paradigm through an original dialogue between the Renaissance and the contemporary world – moving on from the idea of ‘man at the centre of the world’ to the concept of ‘man as part of a universe’ in which a new harmony can and must be sought.
The installation is promoted and realized thanks to Fondazione CR Firenze