Tomás Saraceno’s Ancestral Futures at Haus der Kunst

Tomás Saraceno’s exhibition Ancestral Futures at Haus der Kunst in Munich brings together more than two decades of work to show how historical knowledge and ecological relationships can shape a more just shared future. Its projects range from spider-web installations and a visitor-powered structure made with discarded plastic bags to a collaboration with Indigenous communities of Salinas Grandes in northwestern Argentina. The exhibition makes those connections tangible while addressing resistance to lithium mining and the costs borne by local communities.

Past knowledge as a shared resource

Ancestral Futures takes as its premise that what people have learned from the past matters to how they build a common tomorrow. The solo presentation spans more than two decades of Saraceno’s multidisciplinary practice, which brings art, architecture and science together to make large systems of space, time and matter accessible through physical experience.

Born in Argentina and based in Berlin, Saraceno trained as an architect and has drawn inspiration from the utopian ambitions of Buckminster Fuller. His work often takes forms associated with molecules, webs, bubbles and neural circuits, proposing a vision of existence built on interconnection. At Haus der Kunst, that outlook is grounded in specific materials, living organisms and collaborations rather than left as an abstract idea.

Spider webs make interdependence visible

Spiders and their webs recur throughout Saraceno’s work as both living structures and ways to think about the networks that support life. Visitors can move through expansive web-like installations, encountering the work through their own bodies instead of viewing it only from a distance.

The decade-long series Webs of At-tent(s)ion brings several spider species into the museum, where they spin webs inside boxes. The works draw attention to nature’s cyclical processes and to connections between humans and other forms of life. Their presence also makes the exhibition’s central question concrete: how can a museum present systems of relation as something people can experience?

A balloon idea powered by visitors

Saraceno’s interest in solar-powered air balloons informs an immersive cavern made from plastic bags gathered through public contributions. Visitors ride stationary bicycles to provide the power that inflates the structure, while others enter and walk through its interior. Participation is part of how the work functions, not simply an invitation to observe.

The bags’ colorful mix of brands and discarded remnants turns the cavern into a portrait of consumer culture and disposability. The project also connects with Saraceno’s wider engagement with solar energy and emission-free flight, including his Aerocene project. Rather than present technology as separate from everyday life, the installation links energy, waste and human activity through one shared environment.

Salinas Grandes: collaboration and resistance

The exhibition’s collaboration with Indigenous communities of Red Atacama, in the Salinas Grandes basin of northwestern Argentina, brings local knowledge and making into the museum. Eleven weavers loaned handmade blankets, displayed together as a vivid, soft space where visitors could lounge at the show’s opening. Galleries containing sand, water and salt extend that encounter into the materials of the landscape.

Several works relate to The Sanctuary of Water, a project Saraceno is undertaking with people of Salinas Grandes. The collaboration stands in solidarity with communities resisting lithium mining in a region rich in the mineral. Lithium is used in technologies including electric cars; the project foregrounds the unequal exchange in which international corporations benefit from resources while local communities carry environmental and social costs.

Water reshapes the idea of place

The Sanctuary of Water also exists as a permanent land work organized around a large reflective pond. By reflecting the sky, the pond unsettles the apparent division between land and air. Water becomes both a material presence and a way to understand the connectedness of the landscape.

The project’s account describes Pacha as an inseparable weave of space, time and matter, sustained by flowing water. That idea links the exhibition’s historical premise to its present-day concerns: the future is not imagined apart from the communities, ecosystems and resources that already shape it. Ancestral Futures is on view at Haus der Kunst through February 7.

Takeaway: Saraceno uses webs, waste and water to connect ancestral knowledge with current struggles over ecology, energy and a more equitable future.

Written byClara Loxley

Clara Loxley covers museum and gallery exhibitions across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Her writing places current shows in context, connecting artists’ practices with the histories and ideas that shape them.