Tomás Saraceno. Ancestral Futures

The international multi-disciplinary artist, Tomás Saraceno bridges art, architecture and science in “Ancestral Futures”, which will be presented at Haus der Kunst München from 17 July 2026 to 7 February 2027.

This exhibition traces a unique journey through Saraceno’s practice and marks a significant step forward in both its development and its understanding. It brings together two central strands of his long-term research – Aerocene and Arachnophilia – alongside the unveiling of a major new co-commission for a permanent work of land art, El Santuario del Agua (The Sanctuary of Water), developed by the artist in close collaboration with the Indigenous communities of Red Atacama, Las Salinas Grandes in Northern Argentina, advocating for the ancestral territories of the region.

Extending across the building, the exhibition includes air-fuelled sculptures, shared multispecies habitats and spatial environments that transform how Haus der Kunst’s spaces are experienced, inviting visitors to reconsider ecological and social forces shaping energy transition.

Aerocene is an interdisciplinary community initiated by Saraceno in 2015, researching emission free modes of movement that is seeking to devise new modes of ecological activity. Aerocene sculptures use air, solar radiation, and infrared energy to imagine new forms of life on earth that are independent of fossil fuels. In 2020, the balloon flight of Aerocene Pacha in Argentina, achieved 32 world records, becoming the most sustainable flight in human history.

Arachnophilia examines material, behavioural and acoustic systems across species, building on long-term research into spider/web structures. The exhibition at Haus der Kunst includes new artworks, such as the immersive multi-media installation Towards the Sanctuary of Water featuring innovations arising from Saraceno’s decade long research into spider/web architectures, materials, modes of behaviour, leading to a substantial Learning and Engagement programme in collaboration with the Aerocene Foundation.

Andrea Lissoni, Artistic Director: “Haus der Kunst works with living artists to draw new lines in art history and to rethink how exhibitions are experienced today. With Saraceno, the building becomes a space to engage with ecological and social questions that extend beyond the exhibition itself. At Haus der Kunst, everything is programme, a living web of exhibitions, performances, concerts and encounters that amplify one another and shape a shared experience of art and ecology.”

Curated by Sarah Johanna Theurer and Andrea Lissoni.

Tomás Saraceno (b. 1973) is an Argentina-born, Berlin-based artist whose projects devise platforms for ecosocial and participatory encounters, hosting and amplifying regenerative forms of knowledge. Connecting across scales and spectra, his work – and the transdisciplinary communities he has founded and continues to support – including Museo Aero Solar, the Aerocene Foundation and Arachnophilia – seeks to deepen reciprocity and attunement with other beings in the web(s) of life. He has exhibited internationally at major institutions, including The Met, Palais de Tokyo, and Serpentine Galleries; held residencies at MIT, CNES, and The International Space University; given talks at WEF, TED, and Harvard; and staged interventions with COP20, COP21, and COP26.

Nächste Veranstaltungen: