Balloon Museum - SNOWY / WINDY / SPRING ON THE PLANET Z

2026

SNOWY / WINDY / SPRING ON THE PLANET Z

As a child, I imagined a place far beyond our own sky. A planet with its own weather, its own atmosphere, its own logic entirely. It was my own version of science fiction. How did it feel on this planet? Was it snowy, windy, or could you sense the first green breath of spring -I called it Planet Z.

Snowy / Windy / Spring on the Planet Zis a direct transmission from that childhood imagination. Now, we can enter this world together; we are no longer strangers separated by our private cosmologies. We are inhabitants of the same invented planet, breathing the same impossible air. Making this world within the language of inflatables is a perfect medium to bring it to life. The balloon is, fundamentally, a childhood object. One of the first forms we encounter that can be filled with breath, that can float, that can disappear. But beyond its innocence, the balloon carries a deeper philosophical charge. Its existence depends entirely on air. Without air, there is nothing. No volume, no colour, no presence. It is an object made from the most immaterial of substances, and yet it takes on form, weight, even personality. In this way, it is very close to performance itself.

Air has always been central to my practice. In 1977, Ulay and I made Breathing In / Breathing Out – a performance in which we pressed our mouths firmly together, blocking our nostrils with cigarette filters. Ulay breathed air from his mouth into mine and visa versa. We breathed no outside air, only what existed between our bodies. As I inhaled his exhale and he inhaled mine, we were transforming oxygen into carbon dioxide in a closed loop, a circular motion that was intimate and suffocating at once. We continued for seventeen minutes, until we were at the threshold of unconsciousness. Air became the subject, the medium, and the danger simultaneously.

When you blow air into a balloon, you perform a version of this. You give something of yourself to an object that holds it briefly. The balloon is performative. It is temporary. And when it deflates, or pops, or simply drifts away, it leaves nothing behind. This is precisely what has always drawn me to performance: it exists completely in the present tense, and then it is gone. Only the memory in the body of the witness. I have spent my life pursuing experiences I have never had before. This work is exactly that. Inflatable sculpture at this scale, in this register, is entirely new to me. As enter my 80th year, I approach it with childlike wonder. This newest work, whether you deem it sculpture, installation, or performance, is simply a reconnection to the awe we all experience in our childhoods. I hope it allows visitors to reconnect and discover what is possible when imagination is given space to take hold.

AUDIOGUIDES

Adult

Adult ESP

Kid

Kids ESP

Artist

MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ