Balloon Museum Pops Up in Wynwood With ‘Let’s Fly’

“Spiritus Sonata” by ENESS, 2023, is one of the pieces on display inside the Balloon Museum at Mana Wynwood, Miami.  (Photo courtesy of Eisa Bono)

Kaleidoscopic, trippy and hypnotically intense, the Balloon Museum opened at Mana Wynwood with the “Let’s Fly”  exhibition. It is a massive undertaking which utilizes cutting-edge technology, high quality materials and the fanciful imaginations of 20 contemporary artists or artist teams. The overarching idea is a presentation of air-inflated works which allows for grand scale interactive artwork. It has toured Europe, New York, and Atlanta, and has been visited by 4.4 million guests, according to the museum. The exhibition opened on Saturday, June 22 and will be in Miami through Sunday, Oct. 6, then the same show moves to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Many of the works in the exhibition are lit from the inside and full of color, along with soft lines and textures. Oftentimes they are accompanied by bass-heavy music reminiscent of a nightclub. Balls, balloons, and bubbles, the things of childhood memories, invite interaction. There are mazes of tall, inflated forms to explore, touch and discover for people of all ages. Unique to this exhibition is the importance of proprioception, a sixth sense, the sense of one’s body in space, and personal physicality.

The fashionable hipster-style, youthful and ironic and purposefully “incorrect” of re-naming and misspelling is prevalent here, born out of graffiti. Ouchh, ENESS, Rub Kandy, Pneuhaus, SpY are artists in this exhibit. Most of the works are recent creations, the oldest is from 2005 and the newest is from this year. Also, many pieces are conceived of, designed, and made by multi-skilled teams as opposed to the traditional lone-artist-in-the-studio model.

“AI Dataportal of Miami,” by Ouchhh, 2023 (Photo courtesy of Elisa Bono)

The beginning of the multisensory journey starts with the Ouchhh collective’s “AI Dataportal of Miami,” a tunnel of LED video screens paired with mirrors, thereby multiplying the overall immersion. One is surrounded on the walls, ceilings and floor by a vision of millions of multicolored tiny beads soothingly oozing throughout a tunnel. It is macrocosmically and microcosmically reminiscent of patterns in nature — think a lava flow.

Contrasting the fluidity of “AI Dataportal of Miami,” is “Airship Orchestra” by ENESS. Twelve-foot-high striped spheres, sometimes encapsulated within transparent bubbles, resemble newly discovered life forms from the ocean’s deep. Interaction with these otherworldly creatures include motion-activated audio. The sculptures emit single notes, which sound like they are coming from a faraway horn.

Cyril Lancelin’s “Flying Maze” is a dim, soft labyrinth to navigate and investigate a 32-foot-tall forest of vertically inflated and rounded green geometric shapes. The sightline is purposefully obscured. After going through the maze, you’ll land in the center of a giant reflecting sphere engulfed by the sound of the air pumps that make the sculpture vibrate to the touch.

“The GINJO” by Rub Kandy, 2022 (Photo courtesy of Erin Parish)

A gentle push animates Rub Kandy’s GINJOS family of characters, intensely colored inflated creatures whose only facial features are staring eyes. They sit under blacklight, glowing in the dim room, throbbing bass-filled music above.

Most presentations are interactive and demand attention, however, Michael Shaw’s “Lava Lamp” seems sadly inert. In a field of gyrating, undulating, shifting, noise-making sculptures, the draw of interaction is revealed. Placed among the showmanship of the rest of the exhibition, this piece disappoints and its nuances pale. In another less performative setting, it would work. It doesn’t.

In contrast, Pneuhaus’s “Canopy” is impressive yet simple. Viewers hop on a stationary bike and through peddling, an umbrella-like form raises, causing it to go from white and flaccid to colorful and glowing. In pedaling faster or slower, the canopy’s height can be controlled.

“Ada by Karina Smigla – Bobinski, 2017 (Photo courtesy of Rosa Piadevinco)

A large transparent ball by Karina Smigla-Bobinski, named “Ada,” is helium-filled and moves untethered in a high-ceilinged room. The sphere is spiked with protruding charcoal sticks and resembles a molecule from nano biotechnology. By pushing it,  the viewer causes it to bounce softly through the room. The action of the orb’s charcoal leaves markings on the walls, ceilings and floors in the gallery which starts out completely white.

Smigla-Bobinski’s piece is named after the 19th-century English mathematician Ada Lovelace, known as the first programmer who conceived of computer programs in the 1800s. This piece is a bridge between kinetic art and performance, another commonality in the exhibition.

Alex Schweder’s “Aeroton” features 13-foot tall, inflated columns covered in faux fur. In the room, bass-heavy audio thumps. Through the combination of the tactile, aural and spatial, it is an otherworldly experience to cross the installation as columns lift and fall, which opens and closes the space.

The minimalist and overly large black-inflated innertubes are artwork created by SpY. The overhead row of fat rubber doughnuts sway like caterpillars in an all-white room.” Its Zen-like quality is in contrast to much of the exhibition in its quietude, subtlety and simplicity of materials and forms.

“ZEROS” by SpY, 2022 (Photo courtesy of Elisa Bono)

Hyperstudio, Quiet Ensemble and Roman Hill come together to make “Hyperstella,” a large swimming pool filled about three feet deep with black rubber balls for the visitors to wade through at will. Overhead, black larger balls span the entire ceiling, which sandwich the space in a deep black texture. LED screens circle the room showing bubbles and fluids that variably slide across the mysterious universe. The highlight is the periodic light show which is dramatic and reminiscent of a Florida thunderstorm. This piece is the most intensively interactive, but interacting with the work is not obligatory.

Sasha Frolova’s “Fountain of Eternity” is structurally unique. A silver chandelier-form sculpture and a video titled “Kaleidoscope,” the video shows the artist’s image duplicated, mirrored and layered while dressed in inflated costumes, which she also designed. It is reflected and multiplied in the sculpture, offering a hallucinogenic vision.

Myeongbeom Kim’s intense red “Balloon Tree” levitates near the ceiling with a mass of red balloons growing from a tree trunk with slender roots. Motorefisico’s “Swing” encourages viewer interaction, and by moving through the room, causes air balloons to swing, sometimes bumping into each other. The work, according to the artist, is about the delicate relationships between people’s mutual trust, movement and “joyful unpredictability,” according to signage describing the work. Quiet Ensemble presents “A Quiet Storm,” a darkened room where a blizzard of soap bubbles emanates from a smoke machine. This is a simple but magical iteration of using air as the primary medium.

“Balloon Tree” by Myeongbeom Kim, 2023 (Photo courtesy of Erin Parish)

Similarly, the collaboration of Hyperstudio and Mauro Pace, “Perpetual Ballet” is also physically engulfing. The space contains a wind vortex with increasing speed and a flurry of white balloons, which rise from the ground, using the viewer’s body to bounce around the room.

Sila Sveta has visitors put on Virtual Reality (VR) goggles for “Airscape,” a candy-colored ride on a flying train or in the center of a flower reminiscent of a magic carpet ride. The vistas include pink iridescent castles with octopus’ arms which wind around a plethora of balloons, palaces, underwater creatures, pyramids and more.

Other artists include Camilla Falsini who uses 1980s Memphis style, a blend of Art Deco and Pop Art with an igloo-cave-tunnel. Tadao Cern’s silver balloon installation over endless-space mirrors confuses the eye and challenges one’s balance. Jimmy Kuehnle’s “Bau(ncy) Haus” is a play on words and, again, an exercise in spatial discovery. Max Streicher’s horses, “Silenus and Battle of Cannae,” is the only representational work. Filthy Luker and Pedro Estrellas have adorned the exterior of Mana Wynwood with octopus tentacles.

“Canopy” by Pneuhaus and Bike Powered Events, 2019 (Photo courtesy of Erin Parish)

With timed entry and attendants at each of the pieces, the experience feels personal in this cavernous space. Some installations are not suitable for people who have sensitivity to strobes or flashing lights, have balance disorders, or sensory sensitivities to sound. It is dizzying by design. It is however accessible to anyone with a disability and there is much assistance immediately on hand everywhere.

 WHAT: Balloon Museum “Let’s Fly”

WHERE: Mana Wynwood Miami, 318 NW 23rd St., Miami

WHEN: 1 to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m.to 9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.to 8 p.m. Sunday.  Through Sunday, Oct. 6. Last entry is one hour before the museum closes.

COST:  Weekdays: $39, adults and children 13 and older, $29 for children, 4 to 12 years old; $124 for family pack, which includes two adult and two child admissions; $36 for Florida resident, student, military and seniors 65 and older. Weekend and holidays: $44, adults and children, 13 and older, $33 for children, 4 to 12 years old, $142 for family pack; $41 for Florida residents, students, military and seniors 65 and older.

INFORMATION: balloonmuseum.world/tickets-miami/

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