balloon museum lands in los angeles with inflatables by SpY, ENESS, tadao cern and more

Balloon museum opens in los angeles with works by 21 artists

Balloon Museum lands in Los Angeles, California, bringing the inflatable works by SpY, ENESS, Tadao Cern, and 18 more artists. The exhibition ‘Let’s Fly’ begins on October 30th, 2024, and also debuts the museum’s newest work, Mariposa, which was first unveiled at Burning Man 2023. It’s a gigantic butterfly by the California-based artist Christopher Schardt, and in the Balloon Museum in Los Angeles, it hovers above the visitors, decked out with over 39,000 full-color LED lights.

The museum has had its run in major global cities like Milan, Rome, Paris, Madrid, Naples, London, New York, Barcelona, Atlanta, Düsseldorf, Brussels, and Miami. In Los Angeles, it introduces the inflatable works of Filthy Luker, Tadao Cern, MyeongBeom Kim, Ouchhh, SpY, Max Streicher, Karina Smigla-Bobinski, Michael Shaw, ENESS, Roman Hill, Quiet Ensemble, Rub Kandy, Cyril Lancelin, Sila Sveta, Camilla Falsini, MOTOREFISICO, Alex Schweder, Hyperstudio, Mauro Pace, and Sasha Frolova, which visitors can experience and see from October 30th.

Karina Smigla-Bobinski, ADA, 2011 | all images courtesy of Balloon Museum

SpY, ENESS, tadao cern and more bring inflatables to los angeles

To lure in the visitors and lock them temporarily within the immersive Balloon Museum seems to be the plot of the exhibition in Los Angeles. As soon as they walk in, they can see several inflatables in their varied forms beyond just a party balloon. They can be 10 black inflatable circles moving in synchronized choreography in SpY’s ZEROS.

If not that, they’re 180 silver balloons criss-crossing a room full of mirrors and stroboscopic lighting effects with Tadao Cern’s BB. Others play with music through air, at least with ENESS’ Spiritus Sonata, whose wind instruments use air to inflate the studio’s structures, creating sounds in the midst of the process. Some of the spaces inside the Balloon Museum use spurts and corners of light to let the viewers see the inflatables.

SpY, ZEROS, 2023

Activating bridge for immersive balloon installation

These animated and kinetic lights share the same room with numerous balloons like Hyperstudio’s Hyperstellar series with Quiet Ensemble and Roman Hill, creating an environment of cosmic wonders. Los Angeles also becomes an underlying theme to the other works, namely Ouchhh’s AI Dataportal of Los Angeles, which is an immersive tunnel composed of LED screens and mirrors that reflect the diffused lights and forms.

Visitors in a trance as they leave the museum may want to look up and see Filthy Luker’s Eye Scream, whose giant inflatable tentacles spill out of the bridge connecting the museum’s buildings. The Balloon Museum runs in Los Angeles from October 30th, 2024, until March 16th, 2025, at Ace Mission Studios.

Hyperstudio, Hyperstellar series with Quiet Ensemble and Roman Hill, 2023