In 2022, the Balloon Museum took over the Grande Halle de La Villette with Pop Air, a monumental exhibition that delighted all Parisians. This summer, after stopping in some of the largest cities in the world, the teams from the project specializing in inflatable structures are back in the City of Light with Euphoria, a pharaonic presentation featuring around twenty artists. We had the chance to discover the venue in advance, and here’s what we thought.
Celebration of Excess
No doubt about it, what matters here is to make a statement with inflatable constructions that are more huge, impressive, and stunning than the last!
And it starts even before stepping into the museum, because as you walk up Winston Churchill Avenue, you can spot a huge multicolored inflatable ladder on the facade. And one thing's for sure, the show doesn't stop once you're under the nave.Voir cette publication sur Instagram
From room to room, we discover installations that are sometimes childlike, sometimes poetic, sometimes eclectic, but always extravagant. One thing's for sure, while they all showcase the power of air, they share another common trait: color. There's red, yellow, blue, pink, neon lights, and projectors galore, pulsing in every direction, in a universe that lies somewhere between Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Mickey's House.
A Continuous Immersion
On the agenda for this exhibition, is a complete immersion into a completely crazy world. On one side, you get lost in a psychedelic maze straight out of the mind of Tim Burton. On the other,
we find ourselves locked in a huge glass cage having to make our way through hundreds of giant blue balloons, in a playful experience, sure, but a little anxiety-inducing if you're prone to claustrophobia.Voir cette publication sur Instagram
Here, everything is perfect for immersion, as the goal of each installation is simple: to make the audience vibrate by inviting them to join the show. While the idea of pushing giant suspended balls from the ceiling is just nice (nothing more), we were totally convinced by the swing room for floating above the clouds, the sensors that recreate our heartbeat in sound and light, and of course, the traditional bubble pool that looks like a nightclub !
A Broader Program
We prefer to give you a heads-up, even though Euphoria brings back a touch of magic to the Grand Palais that animated the institution last year during the Olympics, the visit has to...
at the same some cost (22€) which, on top of that, increases by 3€ on weekends. Luckily, the museum offers you a number of alternatives for its summer season, including, on the other side of the nave, the monumental installation by Ernesto Neto, Nosso Barco Tambor Terra.Voir cette publication sur Instagram
This gigantic construction of intertwined threads immerses us in a unique universe, at the border between tradition and modernity, between music and exploration. So don’t hesitate to take off your shoes and wander through this magical forest of wood shavings to discover these fabric trunks, as well as the musical instruments placed here and there. And of course, you’re invited to make all these percussion sounds resonate as much as you like. The cherry on top is that access to this immersive installation is, in this case, free, and that’s a real bonus.
Euphoria – Art is in the Air
Until September 7, 2025
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Until July 25, 2025
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