{"id":342639,"date":"2025-10-30T07:47:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T07:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/342639\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T07:47:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T07:47:14","slug":"is-the-balloon-museums-new-exhibit-worth-the-hype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/342639\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Balloon Museum\u2019s new exhibit worth the hype?"},"content":{"rendered":"

At\u00a0\u201cEmotionAir: Art\u00a0You\u00a0Can\u00a0Feel<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0the latest import from the roving Balloon Museum<\/a>, you\u2019re not so much viewing art as you are being\u00a0swallowed by it. The space hums with light, color and the faint whoosh of industrial fans\u2014a cathedral of air where the holy sacrament is snapping a selfie before the moment deflates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Until April 6, 2026, Avondale\u2019s Fields Studios will be packed with nearly 20 soundstage-sized\u00a0balloon-based installations\u2014like horned sculptures spouting soap bubbles, inflated spheres scrawled with abstract squiggles and, of course, the infamous rose-colored ball pit\u00a0that was essentially the best supporting actor in season three of Emily in Paris.\u00a0<\/p>\n

True to the exhibition\u2019s name\u2014a play on \u201cemotional,\u201d no doubt\u2014each installation is introduced by a digital screen\u00a0adorned with an artist statement and the emotion each piece strives to elicit from the viewer. The exhibition\u2019s tagline \u201cart you can feel\u201d\u00a0certainly rings true\u2014especially if your\u00a0emotional range tends to hover between wonder, mild disorientation and the irresistible urge to document every waking moment of your life on TikTok.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Spherical
\nPhotograph: Shannon ShreibakPlayground Love by Michela Picchi <\/p>\n

I was invited to a press preview of \u201cEmotionAir\u201d a day before its highly anticipated public opening. In lieu of choosing my own adventure as I navigated the exhibition, I was\u00a0guided through a labyrinth of rooms that built toward catharsis\u2014or something like it\u2014as if the curators were engaging in emotional choreography: fear here, awe there, some discomfort peppered throughout. In some moments, I felt like I was sternly\u00a0being told to\u00a0\u201chave fun\u201d at a party\u2014I managed it, but only once I’d accepted that someone was grading\u00a0my enthusiasm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some installations are wondrous and cinematic, while others resemble the aftermath of a philosophy major discovering helium. Perpetual Ballet by HyperStudio and Mauro Pace is an easy standout: Visitors stand in the center of a man-made tornado\u00a0and proceed to be jabbed by hundreds of metallic silver balloons waltzing and bouncing through the air. One of the exhibition\u2019s most provocative moments\u00a0springs from Somehow, I don\u2019t feel comfortable, in which Japan-born artist Momoyo Torimitsu subverts the cutesy kawaii aesthetic with colossal fuchsia rabbits inflated to the point of near-bursting\u2014a commentary on the pains of living in a patriarchal society. On the other hand, Cube Abyss by Cyril Lancelin offers an audacious concept\u2014a webbed inflatable maze soundtracked by disembodied growls meant to elicit fear\u2014but ultimately falters in execution; a conclusion I reached as I was crawling through a latex lattice, feeling more humiliated than fearful.<\/p>\n

Still, cynicism only gets you so far in a\u00a0warehouse building choked\u00a0with\u00a0comically large balloons. Despite my own misgivings, \u201cEmotionAir\u201d remains disarming. People laugh without irony. Grown adults flop backward into a pit of gleaming white balls\u2014sometimes losing their shoes or Rolex watches to the plastic abyss, according to a museum staffer. Somewhere between the backlit balloon figures with wandering LED eyes and the room scattered with interactive kaleidoscopes, my inner critic floated away.<\/p>\n

\"Inflated
\nPhotograph: Shannon ShreibakSynchronized Chaos by Miranda Makaroff <\/p>\n

This is not a museum for those who prefer to wander hushed galleries, hands clasped behind their backs, afraid to touch anything for fear of being fined the value of their lives. The Balloon Museum wants verbs\u2014jumping, flailing, posting, grinning.\u00a0Especially\u00a0posting. This place rewards motion more than contemplation, so save the AP Art History lecture for another\u00a0time and place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the end, \u201cEmotionAir\u201d\u00a0might not change your life, but it will absolutely improve your Instagram grid. It\u2019s art as experience, experience as content and content as a fleeting delight\u2014which, depending on your mood, feels either\u00a0terribly hollow or oddly comforting.\u00a0And really, in a city where winter\u00a0sprawls across half a calendar year and the sun clocks out at four, who could blame anyone for chasing some artificial light?<\/p>\n

Timed tickets for \u201cEmotionAir\u201d\u00a0are currently on sale through April 2026\u00a0(Mon\u2013Thu 1\u20137pm, Fri noon\u20138pm, Sat 10am\u20138pm, Sun 10am\u20137pm) and\u00a0are available\u00a0here<\/a>. Tickets start at $43.19 (including fees) for adults, with prices jacking up $10 on weekends.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At\u00a0\u201cEmotionAir: Art\u00a0You\u00a0Can\u00a0Feel,\u201d\u00a0the latest import from the roving Balloon Museum, you\u2019re not so much viewing art as you are…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":342640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[1037,29645,960,5386,1818,29646],"class_list":{"0":"post-342639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-categories-art","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-illinois","13":"tag-news-art"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115462016114620808","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}