In 2004, the hot air balloon installed in the André Citroën Park in Paris needed to be reconstructed. The Communication Department of the french company Eutelsat, which manages satellites and is the sponsor of the operation, asked us to imagine an image for the new balloon. A tethered balloon is a type of balloon, connected to the ground by a cable and piloted by a balloonist. This balloon rises above Paris at an altitude of 150 meters and provides a 360-degree panoramic view of Paris.

We recommended creating a map of the world so that can be seen from the ground when the balloon is lifted off.

The earth is represented upside down on the balloon: we have made this significant change in our accepted geographical knowledge exchanging the place of the north to the south and vice versa.

This has both a visual effect and a conceptual effect:
– As it rises from the ground, the audience sees the northern hemisphere and the Arctic continent at the bottom of the Earth. This transformation questions our standard way of thinking and formatting the universe system. The southern hemisphere is now Europe, North America, Canada, and Russia.
-Across the Earth-Balloon, large philosophical words are inscribed and represent the ideals of the French Republic:  citizenship, solidarity, justice, dignity, equality, fraternity, and freedom

The project was very much appreciated and accepted by Eutelsat’s communications department but was strangely rejected by the directory. We were never told the reason. We have some ideas about why : Eutelsat is a national company that manages satellites and leases them to various businesses. We suppose that our large French philosophical words would not have been appreciated by some clients.

Ballon de Paris
Parc André Citroën de Paris

Eutelsat
Ville de Paris