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Tomás Saraceno in "Realms of the Real"
Descriptive audio version available here.
Working out of his Berlin studio, artist Tomás Saraceno creates interactive installations, immersive architectural interventions, and participatory community projects that research how to best steward the planet and cohabitate with all its forms of life. In his practice, Saraceno engages with a wide variety of disciplines and specialists, collaborating with sociologists, architects, and entomologists, but also looks beyond human knowledge to learn from and work with arachnids, honeybees, and birds. Across interactive, human-sized webs and tactile works that demonstrate how spiders communicate and navigate, the artist prompts audiences to consider “more-than-human” ways of experiencing the world to instill a new sense of empathy and expand the scope of the possible. In one of his most ambitious participatory projects to date, the artist worked directly with the local Indigenous communities in Argentina’s Salinas Grandes to fly a technologically pioneering, fuel-free hot air balloon and, in turn, used the project’s visibility to advocate for the communities’ profound ecological concerns. This documentary short brings audiences into the bustling studio and expansive mind of an artist whose work expands far beyond the boundaries of contemporary art as he moves between disciplines, builds floating cities, and experiments in ecologically conscious flight. “It always starts with conversation, with dialogue, with inspiration,” says Saraceno.
This film was directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal, produced by Nan Sandle, edited by Colin Nusbaum, and photographed by James Fideler.
Credits
Director: Stephanie Wang-Breal. Executive Producer: Tina Kukielski. Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Producer: Nan Sandle. Editor: Colin Nusbaum. Director of Photography: James Fideler. Associate Producer: Andrea Chung. Associate Curator: Jurrell Lewis. Design & Animation: Momentist, Inc. Composer: Andrew Orkin.
Assistant Camera: Younes Labdi. Gaffer & Electric: Vincent Riediger & Bram van Woudenberg. Location Sound: Moritz Monorfalvi. Production Assistant: Tristan Schneider. Fixer: Bernd Gedeck.
Additional Art21 Staff: Makda Amdetsyon, Lauren Barnett, Hannah DeGarmo, Lolita Fierro, Ian Forster, Grace LeCates, Emma Nordin, Jessica Svenson, Noor Tamari, Nora Wimmer. Interns: Candice Cirilo, Emma Kanne, Billie Lam, Asante Marie Owusu-Brafi, Aarya Silwal, Maria Syville, Emilia Copeland Titus.
Post-Production Supervisors: Amelia Garner & Jennifer Wanamaker. Video Post-Production Service: Cut + Measure. Video Post-Production Producer: Alex Laviola. Colorist: Chris Ramey. Online & Conform: David Gauff. Post-Production Coordinator: Mary Grace Duffy. Audio Post-Production Service: Post Romantic. Re-recording Mixer & Sound Editor: Gisela Fullà-Silvestre. Assistant Sound Editor: Dan Weisselberg. Audio Description & Captions: Sasha Hecht & Andre Kelman. Quality Control: Adam Stout. Narration: Louise Eliasof. Additional Music: Trey Toy. Additional Video Editor: Regina Spurlock. Visual Effects: Daniel de Graaf & Isaiah King. Visual Effects Artists: Logan Cuddemi & Mike Houston. Assistant Editors: Isabella Morelli Avilán, Stephanie Cen, Sarah Yi Fineman, Michelle Hanks.
Artwork Courtesy: Tomás Saraceno & Tonya Bonakdar Gallery.
Legal Counsel: Donaldson Callif Perez.
Archival Material: Aerocene Foundation, Alice Studio Project, Arachnophilia, Leeum Museum of Art, Mirador torre Glòries, National Museum of Korea, Red Brick Art Museum, The Shed.
Special Thanks: The Art21 Board of Trustees, Lars Behrendt, Sarah Kisner, Claudia Melendez, Roland Muhlethaler, Max Parnell, Maristella Svampa.
Filming Locations Provided By: Berliner Festspiele.
January 25, 2020, Aerocene Pacha set 32 world records for being the most sustainable flight in human history. It rose with the message: “Water and Life are Worth More than Lithium”, written with the communities of Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc, Argentina. aerocene.org
Arachnophilia’s breakthroughs include: the Spider/Web Scan, allowing for the first time precise 3D models of complex spider/webs, and advancements in biotremology, bioacoustics and biomateriomics. They have been published in journals including PNAS, and featured in Nature. Collaborators include spider diviners from Somié, Cameroon; Max Planck Institute; and MIT. arachnophilia.net
Series Created By: Susan Dowling & Susan Sollins.
Original Production Funding Provided By: The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, Lambent Foundation, Agnes Gund, Melony and Adam Lewis, National Endowment for the Arts, Teiger Foundation, Sarah Arison, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Dealer Tire, Arts, Equity, & Education Fund™, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Elyse and Lawrence B. Benenson, Stephanie and Tim Ingrassia, Tim and Lauren Schrager Family Foundation.
This program is a production of Art21, Inc. which is solely responsible for its content.
© 2026 Art21, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Closed captionsAvailable in English, German, Romanian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Italian
Through the Art21 Translation Project, multilingual audiences from around the globe can contribute translations, making Art21 films more accessible worldwide.
Interested in showing this film in an exhibition or public screening? To license this video please visit Licensing & Reproduction.
Tomás Saraceno was born in 1973 in Tucuman, Argentina, and currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany. He studied at Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires from 1992 to 1999 and received postgraduate degrees from Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de la Nación Ernesto de la Cárcova in 2000 and Hochschule für Bildende Künste–Städelschule in 2003. Uniquely inspired by the structures and behaviors of the “more-than-human” world, Saraceno proposes more just and eco-social ways of experiencing and inhabiting our environment through interactive artworks that bridge architecture, engineering, and sculpture.
“I love to collaborate with colleagues and friends now. It always starts with conversation, with dialogue, with inspiration.”
Tomás Saraceno
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"Realms of the Real" Educator Guide
Educator Guides provide information about selected artists and themes, questions for classroom discussions, and hands-on activities that provide students with a fundamental understanding of creative and critical thinking processes.