Who do these spider webs belong to?

“Hybrid Webs” by Tomás Saraceno, 46, center around spiders. Two to three spiders of different species build webs for up to eight weeks filling up the space. “Aerocene,” an installation, is a concert where the vibrations caused by spiders resonate with dusts in a dark exhibition room and the audience listens attentively in silence.

The Argentinian artist opened his solo exhibition on Thursday at Gallery Hyundai in Seoul’s Jongno District. Saraceno, based in Berlin, has been producing spider-related artworks for more than 10 years, including “Spider/Web Pavilion 7,” which he installed at the 2019 Venice Biennale. The artist asked himself as a child if the house belongs to him or spiders after finding many of them in the attic and now tries to look at the world through the eyes of spiders.

“Seoul/Cloud Cities” displayed in the underground of the gallery combines Seoul and the “cloud city” he has been dreaming of. “Cloud Cities” displayed at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin drew in huge crowds with a unique experience where people could go inside large transparent balls and feel what it is like to be a spider. His exhibition in Seoul is much smaller but invites the audience to imagine a new society where they can float freely like clouds.


Min Kim kimmin@donga.com