Lecture / Experts of practice
Down to Earth

Invertebrate Rights

Ally Bisshop and Roland Mühlethaler in conversation with Tomás Saraceno

The Argentinian architect, performance and installation artist Tomás Saraceno brings together knowledge of art and both natural and social sciences in his artistic practice and will talk about sustainability in art and ecological balance in working practice.

  • 1 h 30 min
  • In German

Past Dates

Tomás Saraceno is an Argentinian architect, performance and installation artist. He lives and works in Berlin. His practice moves toward the entanglement of diverse threads of thought, including art, life science and the social sciences. Enmeshed at the junction of these worlds, his floating sculptures, community projects and interactive installations propose and explore new, sustainable ways of inhabiting and sensing the environment, especially our atmosphere. His profound interest in spiders and their webs led to the formation of the Arachnophilia team at his studio: With an emphasis on collaborative interaction he also became the first person to scan, reconstruct and reimagine spiders’ weaved spatial habitats, and possesses the only three-dimensional spider web collection in existence. In the Gropius Bau, Saraceno orchestrates the existing cobwebs with the help of rays of light entering the room. Protected from pesticides and saved from extinction, the spiders occupied the rooms in the building long before the exhibition was set up. The cobwebs are their homes and we are their guests – just as we are guests of the planet. The webbings, which become visible through daylight, invite us to think about sympoietic futures and to sharpen our view of how living and non-living entities are connected.

Tomás Saraceno would like to give special thanks to those working together to give voice to the spiders in their fight against extinction, including the members of Studio Tomás Saraceno, the Arachnophilia and Aerocene communities, as well as to Thomas Oberender, and the whole team of Down to Earth, especially Julia Badaljan, Anja Predeick, Tino Sehgal, Jeroen Versteele, Descha Daemgen, Stefanie Hessler, Marc Pohl, Joulia Strauss and Frédérique Aït-Touati for their incredible collaboration. From Studio Tomás Saraceno, thanks to Ricardo Alarcon, Giulia Albarello, Miriam Aller, Gustavo Alonso Serafin, Duncan Anderson, Mateo Argerich, Scott Barnes, Lars Behrendt, Ally Bisshop, Francesca Boenzi, Irina Bogdan, Sascha Boldt, Viola Cafuli, Sebastian Canales, Saverio Cantoni, Thomas Charil, Tatiana Chaves, Constance Chester, Filippo Corato, Sonia D'Agrain, Samantha Dearo, Manie Du Plessis, Hugo Du Plessix, Sebastian Ducros, Andrea Familari, Sara Ferrer, Meike Fischer, Luca Girardini, Paula Guajardo, Martin Heller, Marina Höxter, Georgi Kazlachev, Sarah Kisner, Christos Kollias, Nemanja Kordic, Dario Lagana, Alice Lamperti, Rosalie Laurin, Vicente Macellari, Roxanne Mackie, Lucas Mateluna, Manuela Mazure, Claudia Meléndez, Jillian Meyer, Roland Muehlethaler, Lugh O'Neill, Jörg Niemann, Lea Nikou, Jaime Norambuena, Tania Patritti, Martina Pelacchi, Soledad Pons, Alfredo Ramos, Matthew Raven, Patrick Reddy, Jazmin Schenone, Hans-Martin Schlesier, Anna-Sophie Schmidt, Aysegül Seyhan, Judith Straßenberger, Ilka Tödt, Desirée Valdes, Alberto Vallejo, Erik Vogler, Philipp Weber, Davide Zucco. To studio friends and collaborators including Viola Castellano, Yelta Köm, Peter Jäger and ‪David Zeitlyn. As well, for the constant support, thanks to Andersen’s, Copenhagen; Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles; Pinksummer Contemporary Art, Genoa; and Esther Schipper, Berlin.
Artwork inspired by INVERTEBRATE RIGHTS - Card 8 of 33 of Tomás Saraceno's Arachnomancy Cards, 2019-ongoing.
Stand in solidarity with the spiders by signing the Open Letter for Invertebrate Rights at  Arachnophilia.net.
Let your future be read by a spider/web with Arachnomancy App.