The New Inflatable Moment at BSA Space

Inspired by the 1998 exhibition and book, The Inflatable Moment: Pnuematics and Protest in '68 by Marc Dessauce and The Architectural League of New York, BSA Space will examine key historical moments during which inflatables kindle idyllic or visionary aspirations. Through a series of installations, photographs, videos, and models, the The New Inflatable Moment will contextualize the renewed interest in inflatable structures for architectural and artistic experimentation as expressed among established, emerging, and student architects and artists. Featuring Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Grimshaw, Anish Kapoor/Arata Isozaki, Otto Piene, Graham Stevens, Chico MacMurtrie, and raumlaborberlin, among others. It will also showcase the earlier, pioneering visions of Buckminster Fuller and Frei Otto; the utopian collectives of the late 1960s such as Haus-Rucker-Co, Utopie, and Ant Farm; and the contemporary use of inflatable technology for space exploration.

Curated by Mary E. Hale AIA and Katarzyna Balug, The New Inflatable Moment will anchor the present moment with an interactive timeline by Certain Measures, informing the parallel evolution of the medium with key moments of sociopolitical change. “With this exhibition, we revisit the moment of the 1960s explored by Dessauce to suggest that utopian thought is re-emerging today in architecture and art as evidenced in projects involving inflatables.”­, say Hale and Balug.

Laura Wernick FAIA, chair of the BSA Foundation adds: “The exhibition reveals some of the most visionary architectural minds working with new methods of display and communication. Its premiere at BSA space will empower designers to similarly think and work in new ways to create a better future and motivate the general public to believe in it.”

Curators’ bios
Mary Hale AIA and Katarzyna Balug 

Mary Hale’s passion for inflatable structures began as a student at MIT, where  she  developed her first inflatable structure:  The Monumental Helium Infla table  Wearable  Floating Body Mass . Since then, she has  continued to explore wearable inflatable structures,  at multiple scales from clothing to shelters. One notable project,  Itinerant Home , is an  installation commissioned  by the New Orleans Chapter of th e American Institute of  Architects for their  annual Descours Festival. In addition to artistic practice, Mary has been deeply invol ved in organizing design -oriented community events, exhibitions, and teaching architectural design  studios  at the Boston Arch itectural College and at Northeastern. Mary  founded R OYHALE  Design in 2014 as a channel for these projects. Mary’s work has been  recognized  in international art, design, and technology publications ranging from the MIT Technology Review to Arcade to Clam, a Parisian fashion and culture magazine. Mary holds  a   Bachelor’s  Degree in Urban Studies from Brown University, and a  Masters of Architecture from MIT.

Katarzyna Balug explores the place of imagination in the city, and the possibility of utopia in the la te 20th and early 21st centuries. Inspired by science-fictional worlds and informed by studies in urban history and theory, her work involves research, curation, performance and collaborative installations in public space. Those installations are often inf latable. Past projects have been shown at the Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz, Poland, at the Boston Arts Festival, and at FARO Tláhuac in Mexico City, among others. She is co-founder of Department of Play, a lost city department that facilitates collaboration betwe en residents and urban systems through momentary fictions in public space. Kate is a PhD student in urban and  architectural history and theory at  Harvard Graduate School of Design.