Cool Hunting

Swimming Cities of Serenissima, international street and installation artist Swoon's floating art project, is the kind of undertaking that puts it in the creative ranks of other optimistically adventurous events like Burning Man. With a mission of inspiring hope in a time of over-consumption and economic despair, the collection of handcrafted sculptural vessels built from salvaged materials will make their way from Slovenia to Venice, collecting beautiful things along the way, such as flowers, seeds, music and stories, to build a cabinet of wonders to share at this year's Venice Biennale.

To help make this expedition a reality, Swoon—whose work has exhibited at MoMA, PS1 and Tate Modern—is selling two different limited edition silkscreen prints that are analogous to the Swimming Cities project. The first, "Serenissima," is a signed and numbered double layer silkscreen edition of 250, designed specifically for this year's venture. "Switchback Sisters," is a seven-layer, 106-edition silkscreen print on tea-strained archival paper that's an upshot of Swoon's maiden voyage, a flotilla that sailed from Troy, NY to Manhattan. The silkscreen takes its image from the 27-foot high paper-and-wood sculpture which formed the centerpiece of the resulting installation, "Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea," which will be incorporated into the new Serenissima raft.

The "Serenissima" print is available for $150 and the "Switchback Sisters" print for $700. The crew of 35 artists, performers, activists and home-brewed mechanics will be throwing numerous fundraisers and events in which you can show your support, to find out more information about the ambitious project or to make a donation visit the Swimming Cities website.

See more of photographer Tod Seelie's images of projects past after the jump.