Balloon Museum in Singapore with Pop Air
If you haven’t been caught up to the latest opening over the long weekend, consider this your update: the Balloon Museum is now open right here in Singapore at Marina Bay Sands Expo Hall F, with Pop Air – Art is Inflatable. It’s the roving exhibition’s first-ever show in Asia, with some new artworks in tow, so you’ll want to check it out.
What is Pop Air?
Image credit: The Smart Local
The Balloon Museum debuted in 2021, founded in Rome as a contemporary art exhibition centred around air and inflatable art. To date, it’s got 4 exhibition variations: Pop Air – Art is Inflatable, Let’s Fly – Art has no Limits, EmotionAir – Art You Can Feel, and Euphoria – Art is in the Air.
They’ve toured major cities worldwide including Berlin, Paris, London, and New York, to name just a few – and they’re now here in Singapore till 31st August 2025 with new works by some of the world’s leading contemporary artists. Emily in Paris fans, if you’re finding that the Balloon Museum looks familiar, it did feature in Season 3 of the hit series.
What to expect at Pop Air?
Image credit: The Smart Local
Think Pop art, but inflated and experiential. Visiting the Balloon Museum might just be, for some, a transcendental journey as you make your way through the 17 artworks on display. It’s stunning – both on camera and IRL – and you’ve got to see it for yourself to truly experience it.
Trigger warning: most of the installations are illuminated in dark rooms, with some flashing lights, loud sounds, and smoke effects, which might be overwhelming for some.
Aria – Pepper’s Ghost
The first installation, Aria, sees you walk from the relative darkness of the entry hall into a psychedelic world of balloons – everything everywhere all at once. You’re meant to be surrounded by balloons lost in the sky, and the mirrored floors complete this experience. It’s like Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms – on crack.
Spiritus Sonata – ENESS
From the sensorial overload that is Aria, we move into Spiritus Sonata, whose ultra cute, Ghibli-esque inflatable characters pulse with colour, blowing out breaths of sound. Meant to evoke memories of childhood and one’s discoveries during those early years, the balloon figures are laid out in a circle around the room, creating a cocooning presence as you walk into their embrace.
Soft Hurricane – Quiet Ensemble
The segue between Spiritus Sonata and the following installation is Soft Hurricane – a room of mystically floating white balloons, illuminated by individual spotlights. It’s a dramatic interplay of air and light, forming an overture that’s in parts calming and riveting.
Walk around the perimeter of the room, and feel free to return any balloons that have fallen off their column of air.
Cloud Swing – Lindsay Glatz & Curious Form
Next, and also evocative of childhood, is Cloud Swing, a series of swings suspended from glowing clouds. You might not notice this, but these clouds emit a soft glow that transforms into vibrant lights as you start swinging.
For those of you who’ve been to Burning Man, you may remember this artwork from the 2019 edition of the annual desert festival.
Hypercosmo – Hyperstudio
Hypercosmo is the heart of Pop Air – an entire macrocosm in a room that’s both a ball pit and an alternate universe. Listen out for the announcements for each light and sound show, which takes place every few minutes above the ball pit. In artist speak, you’re at the centre of this artwork; the harmonising element between the upper and lower parts of this re-imagined environment.
FYI, the balls are vacuumed, washed, disinfected with UV light and dried by special machines that the Balloon Museum has procured specifically for this installation.
A Quiet Storm – Quiet Ensemble
Lose yourself in A Quiet Storm, which takes shadowplay to new heights with its smoke bubbles. Leaving the universe of Hypercosmo, you step into a dark, smoky space that’s illuminated by a single white light on the other end of the room.
Then, bubbles of opaque white smoke are blown into the air from above you. They burst, releasing their tendrils of smoke, adding to the graceful mystery of the room, where you quite literally lose your perceptions of space and time.
Swing – Motorefisico
“A collective dance of spheres” is how Swing is described in its artist’s statement, where jagged black-and-white lined spheres bounce, suspended from the ceiling in nets of elastic strings. As you wander between them, you’re invited to interact with them, whether it be to bounce, spin, or push them, creating a domino effect of collision around the room.
The artists’ intention is to demonstrate the dance of trust and surrender – how one lets go into the arms of a trusted other; Swing explores the unpredictability of human interaction and its effect on trust and movement.
Bau(ncy) Hous – Jimmy Kuehnle
Then, you enter the inflatable maze that is Bau(ncy) Hous, illuminated from within each inflatable arm by LED lights that create an ethereal, otherworldly atmosphere as you get lost within the installation.
P.S.: Unlike actual mazes with their solid walls, this inflatable maze allows you to create your own path through the soft tubes.
Canopy – Pneuhaus & Bike Powered Events
Canopy takes interactive art one step further with its bicycle-powered inflatable tree structures that “bloom” as you cycle on the bikes. Not only do the balloon trees grow into fully extended canopies, they also come alive with luminous colour, each blossoming at a different rate, depending on the cyclists below.
Silenus – Max Streicher
Have a moment of silence as you take a break at Silenus – a giant, gossamer-light diaphanous inflated sculpture of a man lying on his side that’s reminiscent of an astronaut, weightlessly suspended in space. Made of nylon spinnaker, an extremely lightweight material, and cast in the shape of the artist’s friend, you may just miss the movements of this sculpture as it “breathes”.
ADA – Karina Smigla-Bobinski
Perhaps the most iconic artwork of Pop Air, every showing of ADA will be unique to that exhibition. Here in a whitewashed room, a helium-filled globe with spikes of charcoal floats. You’re encouraged to help the globe move around the room, without pulling on the charcoal sticks that mark the various surfaces, getting messier as the exhibition goes on.
Crazy Love For Polygons – Cyril Lancelin
Crazy Love For Polygons is like a life-sized version of a Polydron Kids set – yellow inflatables edition. Do as you will with any number of these bouncy polyhedrons: throw ‘em, stack ‘em, line ‘em up. It challenges the mathematical logic of geometry, bringing to the artwork a sense of life as the polyhedrons are moved about by visitors.
Glowing Ballet – Hyperstudio with Mauro Pace
It may seem random, but the streams of air that send the balloons in Glowing Ballet into a spinning frenzy have been carefully choreographed. They spin in a vortex, rising and falling as the airstream goes on and off. Each balloon sports a UV design that illuminates under the purple light that the room is bathed in. And yes – these balloons do burst.
Fun fact: these balloons are made with natural latex, which is a natural and renewable material. They’re combined with pigments for colour, resulting in inflatables that are 100% organic.
10 Agosto – Hyperstudio
The last stop on your journey through Pop Air is 10 Agosto, a fitting finale to a trip through the out-of-this-world realm that is the Balloon Museum. This kinetic installation starts with an outer circle of 22 swings, and an inner, circular platform on which you can sit or lie, and look up at the glowing orbs of “stars” above.
Inspired by the Night of San Lorenzo, or the night of the shooting stars, an annual event held on 10th August in Italy where people gather to watch the Perseids meteor shower, you’re invited to lay back and watch the orbs of pulsating, twinkling lights, and maybe, make a wish upon a star too.
Cafe & gift shop
End your visit to the Balloon Museum with a bite and cuppa at the cafe, which you’ll find after 10 Agosto. While food and drink are not allowed in the exhibition, you can sit back and ponder the artworks that you’ve seen on your trip here as you nurse drinks like an Espresso ($5) or Lemon Tea ($5).
If you’re feelin’ fancy, Prosecco ($10) and Aperol Spritz ($10) are available too. The Balloon Museum was founded in Italy, after all. Pair them with Cake ($9) or a Ham & Cheese Wrap ($10).
Kids will definitely ask for one of the balloon sculptures for sale, including a Big Flower ($15) that’s not your average birthday party souvenir. Otherwise, you could get a Rubik’s Cube ($15) or an adorable plushie (from $20) so you can bring a GINJO home too.
How much are tickets to Pop Air?
| Dates | Adults (>18) | Young (13-17) | Children (4-12) | Bundles |
| Mon-Fri | $45 | $40 | $35 | 2 adults, 1 child: $105
2 adults, 2 children: $135 2 adults, 3 children: $160 |
| Sat, Sun, PH | $60 | $50 | $45 | 2 adults, 1 child: $135
2 adults, 2 children: $170 2 adults, 3 children: $200 |
The exhibition is open daily, with special opening hours from now till 30th June – 10am to 9.30pm. For the remaining duration of the exhibition, the opening hours will be as follows:
- Mon-Thu: 10am-7.30pm
- Fri: 10am-8.30pm
- Sat: 10am-9.30pm
- Sun: 10am-7.30pm
Pop by this fun interactive experience – Pop Air by Balloon Museum
There’s still a couple more weeks of the June holidays to go, so book your tickets to this immersive experience that’ll be a treat for adults and kids alike. This exhibition is only running till the end of August before it heads somewhere else.
Get tickets for Balloon Museum Pop Air here
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- Wonders of Nature at New Art Museum Singapore
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Photography by Huiwen Chan.