The Hayward Gallery marked its 40th birthday in summer 2008 with the exhibition “Psycho Buildings. Artists Take on Architecture,”  Opened by the Queen in 1968, it is part of the South Bank Centre on the south bank of the Thames and is one of Europe’s largest cultural centers. Curator Ralph Rugoff took an artistic approach to its “baroque brutalism” and invited ten international artists to inhabit and transform the gallery’s interior and exterior spaces for a summer.

On the central sculpture terrace, Argentine artist Tomas Saraceno showed his installation “Observatory, Air-Port-City, 2008.” Using a special construction of the geodesic structure of ZENDOME and a complete transparent membrane, Saraceno creates a gigantic “air-city”. Visitors enter through an external staircase into a gigantic transparent space within a space, explore its possibilities and dive into its special atmosphere. Looking down, they recognize themselves on the completely mirrored ground of the first level.

For Saraceno, “Air Port City” is a kind of flying airport, a habitable platform that floats cloud-like in the air and constantly changes its shape. Asked about the utopian content of his project, he replies, “”Utopia exists as long as it is created. Wasn’t it considered utopian a hundred years ago that people could travel by airplane? And today, 500 million people fly every year … The idea of utopia is constantly changing and changing according to the era. With my work, I try to explore and interpret the current reality, using technological innovations for new social goals.”