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The Balloon Museum Floats Its Way to LA… But Is It More Than a Bunch of Hot Air?

 

Featured image credit: The Balloon Museum Official Site

It’s still unacceptable to jump into a ball pit as an adult. Or, as the Chuck E. Cheese manager put it, “I don’t get paid enough to deal with this.” Fortunately, you may have your chance to plunge into a vat of balloons… at least until March 16. The Balloon Museum is in town, and let’s just say, it’s safe to go in with inflated expectations. What, you think a writer who jumps into ball pits is above an opening paragraph pun? 

Anticipating the Pop

Photo credit: The Balloon Museum Facebook

By the time the touring Balloon Museum opened the doors of its Los Angeles iteration, entitled “Let’s Fly”, at the end of October, it had already won accolades and hosted 4.4 million guests across the world. Perhaps more impressive to the average Angeleno, it had also featured in an episode of Emily in Paris’s third season. Today, it’s sprawling across (and a bit outside of) the voluminous Ace Mission Studios in the Arts District. You may remember the venue as the site of last year’s Luna Luna “art park.” The Balloon Museum, originally founded in Rome in 2020, will be calling LA its home until March 2025. 

Is it a bonafide museum? Or a Venus flytrap for influencer wallets? No matter which you choose, you will undoubtedly agree that the Balloon Museum is an odd place packed to the gills with psychedelic sensory disorientation. From traversing radiant tunnels emblazoned with LED distortions to contemplating infinite consciousness in a mirrored void peppered with floating Phantasm-like orbs, you won’t feel like you’re in Kansas. Or Los Angeles. Or planet Earth. 

But is it Art? Or a Museum? Or Balloons?

The Balloon Museum doesn’t perfectly fit the definition of a museum. For one, it’s arguable that the installations on display would offer permanent, lasting value. Very few balloons are permanent. Some would argue that the majority of what’s on display doesn’t even perfectly fit the definition of a balloon. Even when taking into account the subjectivity of art, the Balloon Museum is more or less an immersive Instagram gallery. 


 

But that being said, it’s a good one. And it really tries to hit those sophisticated museum strides. Each piece is accompanied by a placard with a credited artist along with summaries of themes and the history of the piece. And the fact that some of the pieces even have a history is a great sign that this isn’t just a print-to-order Instagram experience. For example, MyeongBeom Kim created his Balloon Tree in 2009, a full decade before the Balloon Museum made its Rome debut. 

Is the Balloon Museum More Than a Bunch of Hot Air? 

Perhaps the museum itself is the balloon. Before you think we accidentally sucked up too much helium, note that there are two themes running through the Balloon Museum (and, no, “balloons” isn’t one of them). Those themes are the culture of the hosting city (each incarnation of the touring museum is different) and air. And since the Air Museum sounds like a place you’d go to learn about aviation and not a place you’d go to draw pictures with a floating, graphite-tipped plastic orb, it makes sense to call it the Balloon Museum. The museum itself encapsulates 21 installations all themed around “air”, like a massive balloon, albeit one constructed from concrete and steel.  

Butterflies, Ballets, Ball Pits, and a Few Balloons

Look at Christopher Schardt’s Mariposa. Originally constructed for 2023’s Burning Man festival, Mariposa is a massive butterfly comprised of 39,000 vibrant LED lights. It even uses a pendulous bench to mechanically flap its wings. And when you stare in awe at Mariposa, challenge yourself to notice that there’s not a single balloon in sight. We could say the same for Ouchhh’s AI Data Portal of, the aforementioned data-blasted canal certain to mesmerize you with saturated LEDs, mirrors… and not a single balloon. 

Photo credit: The Balloon Museum Facebook

And even when a balloon (or at least something balloon-like) is incorporated, it often takes a back seat to a greater spectacle. Take Perpetual Ballet, a collaboration between Hyperstudio and Mauro Pace. Balloons simply serve as a windblown moving canvas bearing psychedelic projections for an immersive atmosphere of surrealism. Or Hyperstudio’s, Quiet Ensemble’s, and Roman Hill’s collaborative Hyperstellar, your best chance to leap into a ball pit as an adult without being escorted away by mall security. Here, you can plunge into an Olympic-size swimming pool of obsidian orbs beneath a low ceiling of jet-black balloons. 

Then, there’s Karina Smigla-Bobinski’s ADA, an interactive installation in which guests pilot a clear plastic balloon tipped with graphite spikes around the room, leaving incidental pencil sketches on the room’s surfaces. The artist plans to eventually make the subsequent wall sketches into a separate piece in its own right. 

A Steep Price but a High Time

So “museum” is a matter of opinion when it comes to the Balloon Museum. As is “balloon” for that matter. And with timed ticket prices starting at $39 for California residents, it might be steeply priced for an attraction so ill-defined. But it’s hard not to have a blast with these installations. So, keep those expectations high, and don’t worry about the reality of the experience bursting your bubble. The only ones in danger would be those who had theirs deflated long ago.

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