PIONEERING DESIGN AND BALLOON ART

The MAG - 03.23

By Cristina Morozzi

Balloon Museum

Balloon Museum, with its inflatable installations by eighteen international artists and art collectives, arrived in Milan, after Rome and Paris, at Superstudio located at Via Tortona 27. Light and volatile sculptures, lunar landscapes, subjects with human and zoomorphic features, transparencies, colors and surprising outsizes welcome the public. These include Silenus, the sleeping transparent giant by sculptor Max Streicher; Knot by Cyril Lancelin; and Geraldo Zamproni’s Volatile Structure comprising red pillows strewn across the floor.

The giant works alter the perception of space, which loses its geometric connotations to offer spatial propositions. Abstractions and architectural elements such as Tholos by the Plastique Phantastic collective, a homage to the temples of antiquity and a reflection on classical forms, made of reflective and transparent materials, enchant visitors. 

The exhibit is a space for wonder, where large flowers with long stems sway, concealing complimentary entrance tickets in their purple petals. 

Created with special focus on sustainability, the exhibition was nominated for the BEA Best Event Awards. 

Balloon Museum offers an amusement park-like atmosphere that is perfect for children but also for adults, who will recall how design was a pioneer of “balloon art” with inflatable and transparent armchair Blow, produced by Zanotta and designed by De Pas D’Urbino Lomazzi in 1967, and which is still in the collection; and inflatable armchair UP by Gaetano Pesce, with its maternal coziness and which was the result of lengthy experimentation, first produced in 1969 by C&B (Cassina and Busnelli) and now reissued by B&B Italia.