In Orbit Lets Visitors Experience A Vast Cloudscape Suspended 80ft In The Air

Tomás Saraceno - In Orbit
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21 Ständehaus, © Tomás Saraceno
Photo © Studio Saraceno

Ever wished you could land on a cloud? Well now you can with Tomás Saraceno's most daring installation yet In Orbit, which invites visitors to enter "cloud city." Only advice: wear shoes with good traction.

Suspended more than 80ft above the ground, the net structure spans the vast cupola of the Kunstsammlung NRW, Dusseldorf's museum of modern art. The steel wire construction weighs over 6,000lbs, yet the half dozen spheres, some reaching nearly 30ft in diameter, float like cotton-candy clouds, weightless. Visitors can enter this surreal landscape on three different levels and move freely between the spheres.

Tomás Saraceno - In Orbit
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21 Ständehaus, © Tomás Saraceno
Photo © Studio Saraceno

Saraceno has spent the past three years designing In Orbit, which opened to the public today June 21st. He has collaborated with engineers, architects, and even biologists. Interested in the startling beauty and astonishing strength of spider webs, Saraceno's project interfaces the natural world with technological innovation. He has studied the complex ways that spiders spin their intricate webs and now he has spun his own—26,910 square feet of metal and mesh.

But it's not only about the structure. The cloud city is dependent upon those who inhabit it. "To describe the work means to describe the people who use it, and their emotions," says Saraceno. When multiple people enter the structure at once they alter the tension of the steel wires and send vibrations radiating outwards, changing the space and communicating to the other cloud city dwellers. The daredevils who climb to the top tier will discover a mini-world below them as people on the ground floor appear tiny and far away. Those who play it safe and keep their feet on the ground will find a sea of people floating above their heads. But regardless of where you stand, or float, In Orbit will leave you in awe.

Tomás Saraceno - In Orbit 
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21 Ständehaus, © Tomás Saraceno
Photo © Studio Saraceno

Tomás Saraceno - In Orbit 
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21 Ständehaus, © Tomás Saraceno
Photo © Studio Saraceno

Tomás Saraceno - In Orbit 
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21 Ständehaus, © Tomás Saraceno
Photo © Studio Saraceno

Tomás Saraceno - In Orbit 
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21 Ständehaus, © Tomás Saraceno
Photo © Studio Saraceno

Tomás Saraceno - In Orbit 
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21 Ständehaus, © Tomás Saraceno
Photo © Studio Saraceno