Tomás Saraceno Cloud City

When Kunsthal Spritten opens its red doors to welcome all in what was once the distillery’s power station, visitors will be greeted by something truly extraordinary: Cloud City, a major work by world-renowned Argentine artist Tomás Saraceno (b. 1973). Comprising 59 cubes and rising 30 metres high, the work is a key focal point of Denmark’s new kunsthal. It is also Saraceno’s largest permanent work to date. Cloud City anchors a dream shared between the artist, the kunsthal and the city: creating a new meeting place that brings us closer to ourselves, to one another and to nature.

Cloud City is an immersive artwork integrated into the building itself, making a bold contribution to the kunsthal’s architecture and the future visitor experience. Created specifically for Kunsthal Spritten, the work combines a complex steel structure with modules in glass, mesh and multicoloured aluminium elements that catch the light and interact directly with the surroundings.

Tomás Saraceno says: 

"I am deeply grateful to everyone who has supported this fantastic project between art and architecture over so many years. I can’t think of any other sculpture of this scale, where more than a hundred people can enter together a space of colorful imagination. A social experiment, expanding free public space into a vertical realm, inviting everyone to float suspended like drops of water above the fjord. I have envisioned Cloud City for children and for grandparents, for people with diverse abilities and those with way more than human ones, for coming together in diverse latent states of excitement. When perspectives are reversed and horizons expanded, our capability of dreaming, collectively or individually, may be beautifully enhanced."

From the kunsthal’s top floor, visitors are invited to step into the work and move through it: a spatial total installation to explore and linger in. Envisioned as a social artwork that powerfully engages the senses, Cloud City fosters a vibrant interplay in which the open sky, the fjord outside, and the city’s towers and rooftops are reflected in the piece itself.

Inspired by shifting cloud formations, Cloud City is modelled on the structure of cumulus clouds coalescing. The sculpture challenges our established notions of gravity, movement, freedom and togetherness, pointing towards a future where we humans live with greater lightness and more closely connected to our surroundings.

The co-directors of Kunsthal Spritten say:

"The work Cloud City will embody what Kunsthal Spritten aims to be: a place where contemporary art meets the world and offers new perspectives on our shared future. Tomás Saraceno’s magnificent work captures the essence of our ambition: to create art experiences that move us and invite reflection on how we live and coexist on this planet."

Tomás Saraceno (b. 1973) is an internationally acclaimed Argentine artist whose interdisciplinary practice sits at the intersection of art, architecture and science. For more than two decades, he has explored and challenged conventional ideas of space and ways of living, proposing visions for a more sustainable relationship between people, nature and technology.

Saraceno has exhibited at leading institutions worldwide, including The Shed (New York), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), K21 (Düsseldorf) and the Venice Biennale. Most recently, Tomás Saraceno created a permanent total installation for the Planetarium in Copenhagen. Saraceno has collaborated with researchers from NASA, MIT and the Max Planck Institute, and today leads the Berlin-based studio Aerocene Foundation, a global network for experimental and sustainable thinking.

With Cloud City at Kunsthal Spritten, Saraceno realises his largest permanent work to date — a monumental manifestation of his vision for living in a state of harmony and fellowship on Earth, and in closer contact with one another and nature.  

The transformation of the spirits factory into a kunsthal for contemporary art is made possible by Realdania and Aalborg Municipality. Cloud City is being created with support from Det Obelske Familiefond, Spar Nord Fonden, Ny Carlsbergfondet, Salling Fondene, Augustinus Fonden, Knud Højgaards Fond, A. Enggaard A/S and Wagner Ejendomme ApS.

Kunsthal Spritten receives support for its day-to-day operation and maintenance from Aalborg Municipality.