Tomás Saraceno (b. 1973) is an Argentina-born, Berlin-based artist whose projects devise platforms for ecosocial, participatory, and installative encounters, that host and amplify regenerative forms of knowledge. Connecting across scales and spectra—from the inaudible vibrations communicated along a spider’s silken thread, to the aerostatics of floating sculptures, and the filamentary cosmic web—his work builds bridges of ‘response-ability’ that move audiences towards deeper 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, World Science Festival and Harvard; and staged interventions at COP20, COP21, and COP26.

For over two decades, Saraceno has led open, multi-access, collective projects that overcome lines of discipline, border and species, expanding on his research into moving beyond arachnophobia and the Capitalocene, towards eco-social justice.

With Museo Aero Solar (2007–) and Aerocene Foundation (2015–)—an international movement for eco-social justice—he has facilitated fossil fuel-free flight through aerosolar sculptures; grown collaborations with MIT, CNES, and Greenpeace; and activated workshops, festivals, and exhibitions across 152 cities in 36 countries. Through the testing and floating of aerosolar sculptures that lift using air, sun, and wind—without helium, hydrogen, batteries, or burners—the project galvanises an ethical re-alliance with the Earth and atmosphere. In January 2020, Aerocene Pacha rose using only the air and the sun, setting 32 world records and becoming the most sustainable flight in human history. Aerocene engages a global network of artists, activists, scientists, and institutions, including MIT, CNES, and Public Lab. Together, they have created open-source tools such as the ‘Aerocene Backpack’, a portable floating kit for launching aerosolar sculptures; the ‘SensAIR’, Do-It-Together (DIT) device facilitating atmospheric sensing; and the ‘Float Predictor’, a global forecasting system that utilises open meteorological data to predict flight paths of aerosolar sculptures.

With Arachnophilia (2018–)—a distributed and intercultural community syncretizes diverse forms of knowledge through a shared affinity for spider/webs—Saraceno has facilitated numerous scientific breakthroughs through collaborations with MIT, the Senckenberg Research Institute, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, and Max Planck Institute. Saraceno’s research into spider/web architectures began in 2010 with the ‘Spider Web Scan’, a laser-supported tomographic method that enabled the first-ever 3D mapping of complex spider/web structures. This technique has contributed to the development of biotremology, deepening the study of bioacoustics, and biomateriomics, revealing how spiders communicate through vibrational signals. Since 2014, Arachnophilia has developed web sonification technologies, leading to Interspecies Jam Sessions and Arachnid Orchestras—collaborations that engage the musicality of webs. On the occasion of the 2019 Venice Biennale, in which Saraceno exhibited the Biennale’s first non-human pavilion, Arachnophilia.net was launched, containing an archive of 3D spider/web typologies and vibrational data, together with the Arachnomancy App. Arachnophilia continues to platform other modes of knowing beyond the scientific, including Nggamdu.org: a web portal by the spiders and diviners of Somié, Cameroon, archiving and offering consultations with the spider.

By interweaving scientific inquiry, artistic practice, and ecosocial justice, Saraceno’s projects envision multispecies futures, challenging extractivist infrastructures to re-instantiate a more equitable balance of human, techno- and biodiversities.

Saraceno has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing (2024); Serpentine Galleries, London (2023); Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania (2022); The Shed, New York (2022); Towada Art Center, Japan (2021); Carte Blanche at Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2018); Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires (2017); K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Ständehaus, Dusseldorf (2013); the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2012); and Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin (2011). Saraceno has participated in numerous festivals and biennales, including the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale (2020) and the 53rd and 58th Venice Biennales (2009, 2019) and staged artistic interventions with COP20, COP21, and COP26, as well at the World Economic Forum, Davos, in 2017 and 2013. Saraceno was the Director and Lead Professor of The Busch at the IAK Architecture-related Art Institute in Braunschweig, Germany from 2014–2016, and has conducted educational workshops at Columbia and Princeton, as well as in Somié, Cameroon, and Salinas Grandes, Argentina, among other locations.

Saraceno’s artworks are furthermore housed in numerous permanent collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany; and The National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, and he has been commissioned for twenty-one permanent, large-scale installations across four continents. He has collaborated with the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology for over a decade (2012–), and held numerous prestigious residencies including at the Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) in Paris (2014–2015) and Goethe Institut, London (2016) among others. He has received several prizes, including the Konex Platinum Award in Art and Technology (2022) and the Alexander Calder Prize (2009); and given hundreds of talks and public lectures, most notably at TED and Harvard. With Studio Tomás Saraceno he has published over 20 books, and contributed to numerous other publications.

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Last updated: August 2026