Tomás Saraceno for Aerocene Albedo

Special project Audemars Piguet for Art Basel Miami Beach 2018. Aerocene is conceived as a collective endeavour to raise awareness about the plight of the Earth’s atmosphere and proposes imaginative solutions to rid the world of fossil fuels. Aerocene materialises as lighter-than-air sculptures buoyed by the heat of the sun and radiation from the surface of the Earth. “Albedo” presented an array of solar reflective umbrellas and floating assemblages, along with daily performances, solar cooking events, and community talks exploring our relationship to the sun and what it would feel like to breathe in a post-fuel era. “Albedo” took the form of a large-scale temporal pavilion, comprised of 40 reflective, out-turned umbrellas of various sizes, creating a hemispherical sundial on the Miami Beach oceanfront. The experimental structure harnessed solar energy to lift the iconic Aerocene Explorer into the air whilst keeping it suspended.