➤ Tomás Saraceno, Algo-R(h)i(y)thms, 2017-2026 (Courtesy of New Taipei City Art Museum, Photo | Lin Guan-ming)
Tomás Saraceno: Interwoven
At the tip of a delicate spider’s thread, what connections lie? Within the drifting clouds above, what secrets are hidden? Tomás Saraceno draws inspiration from these overlooked corners of everyday life to reflect on humanity’s place in the cosmos: are we the architects of the world, or merely one of many interdependent forms of life and matter?
Titled Interwoven, Saraceno’s first large-scale solo exhibition in Taiwan invites audiences to explore this question from perspectives beyond human activity. Born in Argentina and based in Berlin, Saraceno works across art, science, and social engagement, collaborating with biologists, physicists, and environmental researchers to create immersive, large-scale installations. In this exhibition, visitors are no longer mere observers—they are invited into a relational space where human beings are encouraged to reconsider how we respond to the world around us.
➤ Tomás Saraceno's portrait (Courtesy of New Taipei City Art Museum, Photo | Hsuan Lang Ling)
Beginning with a single thread
For many years, Saraceno has studied spiders, finding creative inspiration in these creatures that often evoke fear. Spiders perceive their surroundings through vibrations transmitted along their webs, and our material world also resonates with subtle vibrations—from insects, plants, and soil to other living beings. In Algo-r(h)i(y)thms, Saraceno simulates a spider web, transforming it into an interactive space that conveys information through vibrations. Visitors can touch the web’s intersections to produce sound, becoming entangled in the work and experiencing the subtle, quiet signals of life that invisibly connect everything.
➤ Tomás Saraceno, Algo-R(h)i(y)thms, 2017-2026 (Courtesy of New Taipei City Art Museum, Photo | Lin Guan-ming)
In Webs Of At-ten(s)ion, spiders from different regions and social behaviors—some solitary, some communal or semi-communal—are brought together to weave a “hybrid web.” By allowing these diverse spiders to occupy the same space and build upon existing structures, the installation models a form of dialogue that is simultaneously independent and interconnected, suggesting that even seemingly conflicting or incompatible communities can develop ways of coexisting and collaborating.
➤ Tomás Saraceno, Webs Of At-ten(s)ion, 2025 (Courtesy of New Taipei City Art Museum, Photo | Hsuan Lang Ling)
Saraceno also observes parallels between the structure of spider webs and the cosmic web of dark matter connecting galaxies. In the exhibition, laser-scanned webs emit a quiet red glow in the dark, echoing the intricate and interconnected networks of galaxies in the universe. In How to Entangle the Universe in a Spider/web?, visitors project this cosmic network, tracing the invisible threads that link all things, and reflect on humanity’s capacity for adaptation and“response-ability.”
➤ Tomás Saraceno, How to Entangle the Universe in a Spider_web_, 2025 (Courtesy of New Taipei City Art Museum, Photo | Hsuan Lang Ling)
The world as an interconnected whole
Through the microcosm of spider threads and vibrational perception, the exhibition expands into environmental and social concerns. Saraceno presents the concept of the “Aerocene”, inviting audiences to reconnect with the awareness of individual life and the Earth’s environment.
In Thermodynamic Imaginary, visitors encounter wall-mounted works alongside delicate, floating glass sculptures, forming a subtle ecosystem of air, glass, and light. The Aerocene sculptures envision fossil-fuel-free flight prototypes, encouraging reflections on cleaner and more sustainable futures. Ha Chi Ki… captures the ephemeral dynamics of breathing, drawing on diverse cultural interpretations of “qi” to remind visitors that each exchange of breath is an invisible yet intimate link to the Earth.
➤ A view of the gallery of Thermodynamic Imaginary. (Courtesy of New Taipei City Art Museum, Photo | Lin Guan-ming)
The video installation Fly with Pacha, into the Aerocene documents Saraceno’s collaboration in 2020 with Indigenous communities in the northern Argentinian Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc. A large solar balloon, Aerocene Pacha, bears the slogan: “Water and life are more valuable than lithium,” protesting lithium mining that threatens local land and water. In Andean culture, “Pacha” represents harmonious energy that interconnects all things in the cosmos. This fossil-fuel-free flight set 32 world records.
➤ Tomás Saraceno, Fly with Pacha, into the Aerocene (Still Image), 2017-2023 (Courtesy of New Taipei City Art Museum, Photo | Lin Guan-ming)
Museo Aero Solar, presented in Taiwan for the first time, engages local participants to collect and assemble recycled plastic bags into a solar-powered balloon sculpture. Functioning as both an artwork and a climate action, it has involved participants from over thirty countries, transforming everyday waste into an act of environmental stewardship.
➤ Tomás Saraceno, Museo Aero Solar, 2023-2026 (Courtesy of New Taipei City Art Museum, Photo | Lin Guan-ming)
➤ Tomás Saraceno, Museo Aero Solar, 2023-2026 (Courtesy of New Taipei City Art Museum, Photo | Lin Guan-ming)
Extending this practice, visitors are invited to participate in the Fair Cloud project, collectively depicting the clouds above the salt flats to reflect on creating more equitable cycles of water, memory, and life. These clouds may drift over urban cities or across ecologically rich Andean wetlands, connecting global audiences to local environmental stewardship.
Spanning scales from the microscopic to the cosmic, the exhibition positions visitors not only as observers but as active nodes within a vast network of life. By slowing down and attuning to subtle vibrations, one may realize that we are already part of an interwoven cosmic web shared by all things.
