Inflatable art drifts to The Hague
Opposite the museum district of The Hague, bright inflatable figures rise alongside the Hofvijver, slide between historic facades and turn the city center into a walkable path of color and air. BlowUp Jubilee 2026 opens throughout the Dutch city today, May 29, bringing together the last five years of BlowUp Art Den Haag in an expanded anniversary edition that will run until June 21.
The exhibition brings together large-scale works by Dutch and international artists public area, especially around Lange Voorhout and Hofvijver. The project treats the city as an open-air museum, with inflatable pavilions, floating objects, reflective forms and architectural gestures placed where people already move through the city. Admission is free, which keeps the ride close to BlowUp Art’s original concept: art outside the gallery, met at street level.
Steve Messan, Tunnel
air as material
Air does much of the structural work here, but projects throughout The Hague BlowUp Jubilee reach beyond innovation. These pieces rely on volume, pressure, fabric, stitching, color and surrounding architecture to maintain their presence. A project can appear bland and temporary while still changing the weight of a historic square or the mood of a waterfront vista.
Among the returning works are Raw Color’s Compressed Cylinders, which packs bright inflatable columns into a glass container, and John Körmeling’s giant yellow donut, The Ever-Beating Calendar. Obsidian Studios The town is dotted with large pink-hued shells, while Sigrid Calon’s Gazebo stands as a pink pavilion. Steve Messam‘s Crested appears as a headdress with a red spike, Marcel Wanders contributes reflectively Eggs, and Studio work float a pan in the water with Like a Pan in the Water.
Studio Ossidiana, Softshell
The Hague as a route
The Hague sets the tone for the BlowUp Jubilee, as the large tree-lined expanses of its museum district introduce inflatables to brick, stone, water and historic urban spaces. Their scale changes with each setting. Some works are almost architectural, while others read like bright vacations on a historical postcard.
BlowUp Art Den Haag started in 2022 as part of BinnenhofBuiten, an initiative of Hague & Partners commissioned by the municipality, while the Binnenhof is undergoing renovation. This context continues to shape the work. The closed political complex becomes the occasion for a cultural route outside it, turning the building and the inaccessible into an occasion to keep the area active.
Mieke Meijer Studio, Airboretum
a public commemoration of the anniversary of the bombing
For this anniversary edition, previous works return in new combinations, giving visitors a leisurely survey of how the exhibition has developed. The list of artists includes Raw Color, Marcel Wanders, Studio Job, Yamuna Forzani, Paul Cournet, Kiki & Joost, Sigrid Calon, Steve Messam, Theo Botschuijver, Studio Mieke Meijer, Adrianus Kundert, Fransje Killaars, Eugenie Boon and John Körmeling, among others.
The appeal comes from the way the installations make the public space feel temporarily rearranged. A lake familiar gains an additional kitchen item. A facade meets a purple loop. An avenue receives a red inflatable crown. BlowUp Jubilee uses the lightest material imaginable to change the way people see the city, giving The Hague a month of playful scale changes without removing it from its own streets.
Raw paint, compressed cylinders
Larissa Ambachtsheer, Keep Me Balanced
