Balloons

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In 1967, Eduardo Terrazas produced his first balloon and inflated it at the Main Square of Mexico City as a sculpture during the Olympic Games held in Mexico in 1968. It was an enormous transparent sphere for Harper’s Bazaar magazine shooting, ten meters in diameter, manufactured from pvc, whose dimensions confronted the grand space of the plaza of the Constitution as if it were a measurement unit by which one might realize how great the dimensions of the plaza really were. 

Terrazas also used multiple smaller versions –of 3 meters in diameter–, printed with the five colors of the Olympic logo and inflated with helium, floated over the Olympic venues grouped into a series of five and were also used at press centers, information modules, and exhibition spaces. These Olympic balloons were also part of the Mexican participation at the 6th Biennial of Paris.

During the 1970s, Terrazas explored the balloon’s sculptural qualities through a variety of linear patterns, alternating between color and transparency, playing with space and perception. Some of these were exhibited in several cities in Latin America, the United States, and Europe; others were part of Sara Pardo’s interactive scenery for her choreography presented in Mexico, Paris, and Taormina. One very special balloon was installed just above the Saint John the Divine altar in New York.