Museo Aero Solar – Amsterdam 2026
This summer, Museo Aero Solar comes to Amsterdam!
Created in collaboration with Aerocene Foundation, this city-wide collective artwork transforms used plastic bags into a large-scale inflatable structure, shaped through public workshops, community gatherings, and shared making across the city. Everyone is invited to contribute plastic bags, join workshops, and take part in the gradual construction of this evolving artwork.
Jump to:
About Participate Program Visitor Centre
Drop-off locations. DIY kit. Partners
Follow the entire journey: Instagram
Created in collaboration with Aerocene Foundation, this city-wide collective artwork transforms used plastic bags into a large-scale inflatable structure, shaped through public workshops, community gatherings, and shared making across the city. Everyone is invited to contribute plastic bags, join workshops, and take part in the gradual construction of this evolving artwork.
Jump to:
About Participate Program Visitor Centre
Drop-off locations. DIY kit. Partners
Follow the entire journey: Instagram
About Museo Aero Solar
Rooted in ideas of ecological responsibility, collective care, and sustainable futures, Museo Aero Solar reimagines waste as a shared resource rather than something to discard. Plastic bags – objects designed for convenience and disposal – are transformed through simple, repeated gestures into a collective structure that carries social, environmental, and political meaning. Rather than treating recycling as a purely technical solution, the project approaches it as an act of attention, collaboration, and imagination.
The collected bags become the raw material for a living archive that is both a social sculpture and an embodied collective journey. The project and its message grow through shared making, bringing together art, community, and environmental awareness through simple collective actions: cutting, taping, layering, drawing, and assembling. Every bag collected and every participant contributes to an evolving commons, building awareness around environmental issues while encouraging collective responsibility for our shared future.
Throughout July, August, and September, workshops and public moments connect public art, education, urban exploration, and community participation across the city. The workshops are hands-on and open to everyone, regardless of age or experience, with children warmly invited to participate. Across the season, the structure moves through Amsterdam, growing with each workshop, each contribution, and each encounter until its final public presentation in September.
Rather than presenting the environmental crisis from a distance, Museo Aero Solar works directly with the material realities of everyday life, using what already exists in excess as its starting point. What emerges is not a permanent monument, but a fragile, temporary structure built through collective participation. It suggests that more sustainable futures may begin not with new materials, but with new ways of assembling, sharing, and caring for what is already present.
Top image: Museo Aero Solar at Aerocene Seoul, Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea, 2024. Photography by Alice Studio Project, courtesy of Aerocene.
Image: Museo Aero Solar at Lahore Biennale, Pakistan, 2024. Photography by Mizna Zulfiqar, courtesy of Aerocene.
How to participate
Museo Aero Solar grows through many small collective actions. Plastic bags collected across Amsterdam become the material for a living archive and a large-scale social sculpture that expands with every contribution.
There are several ways to take part:
- Collect and donate used plastic bags at one of the drop-off locations.
- Visit the Visitor Centre at Mediamatic to learn about the project, contribute materials, and follow the construction process.
- Join a workshop to cut, tape, layer, draw, and assemble the structure alongside other participants.
Program Visitor Centre Drop-off Contact
Image: Museo Aero Solar at Lahore Biennale, Pakistan, 2024. Photography by Mizna Zulfiqar, courtesy of Aerocene.
Program
17, 18, 19 July | 14:00–18:00Mediamatic, Amsterdam
Join a hands-on workshop to help build Museo Aero Solar. Open to all ages and experience levels. No prior knowledge is required.
Read more
24 July, 17:00–23:00Flevopark, Amsterdam
Read more
Date TBA
in collaboration with Plastic Whale
More information soon
4 September | Time TBAAmsterdamse Bos
Image: Museo Aero Solar, presented as part of The Work of Wind: Air, Land, Sea, organised by the Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto Mississauga, 2018. Curated by Christine Shaw. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.
Visitor Centre
Mediamatic, Amsterdam
6 July – 15 August
Open every Wednesday and Friday, 12:00–18:00
From early July onwards, one of Mediamatic's greenhouses will become the Museo Aero Solar Visitor Centre. Throughout the summer, the Museo Aero Solar cargo bike will also travel across Amsterdam, collecting plastic bags and bringing the project into neighbourhoods across the city.
In collaboration with:
Plastic bag drop-off locations
Dijksgracht 6, Amsterdam
6 July – 14 August
Outside drop-off (24/7)
website
6 July – 7 August
Participating store locations:
- Bos en Lommerplein 126, Amsterdam
- Javastraat 24, Amsterdam
* Please note: there are no separate Museo Aero Solar bins at the Droppie locations. Simply dispose of your used plastic bags in any of the in-store plastic bag recycling bins, and we will collect them regularly.
website
Le Mairekade 33A, Amsterdam
dates TBA
Mon–Fri 10:00–17:00
website
Image: Museo Aero Solar, presented as part of The Work of Wind: Air, Land, Sea, organised by the Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto Mississauga, 2018. Curated by Christine Shaw. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.
DIY kit (for everyone who feels like a kid)
Do you want to join the project, but prefer to work on your own – or perhaps while on a summer trip? Maybe mobility is an issue, or you simply feel more comfortable creating from home. Whatever the reason, you can still be part of Museo Aero Solar!
With our DIY kit, you can create your own 1×1 meter artwork from used plastic bags. Follow the manual, and send your piece to our Visitor Center, drop it off at one of our drop-off locations (don’t forget to include your name and contact details), or email us to arrange an alternative way of participation.
DIY kit (Nederlands)
For educators and teachers, Museo Aero Solar also offers a school programme kit. It includes an introduction to the project and a tailored programme for a creative afternoon at school, after-school care, or summer camp. Feel free to reach out for more information or questions.
School programme kit (Nederlands) Contact
Image: Museo Aero Solar, presented as part of The Work of Wind: Air, Land, Sea, organised by the Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto Mississauga, 2018. Curated by Christine Shaw. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.
Partners
Museo Aero Solar Amsterdam is made possible through the support of our partners:
- Location partners: Mediamatic
- Location partner: Amsterdamse Bos
- Collecting partner: Milieu Service Nederland
- Collecting & programme partner: Plastic Whale
- Drop-off location partner: Droppie
Contact
For questions and inquiries, please contact us here.
Credits
Museo Aero Solar is an ongoing collaborative project that has evolved through more than one hundred iterations worldwide. The project was initiated in 2007 by Tomás Saraceno and Alberto Pesavento and has been part of the Aerocene Foundation since 2015. The 2026 Amsterdam iteration, presented at Synergy City, is initiated by Synergy Foundation, curated by Natasha Greenhalgh, and programmed/coordinated by Rik Dijkhuizen.
Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.