Weather Engines
The reduction of time/weather to quantitative data and the neurotic treatment of meteorological data refer to the perception of the weather by the subject who approaches the weather from the media and the internet. Thus we introduce the term “neurotic” to describe a psychological process in which what we repel becomes what we truly desire. And this happens in a repetitive manner. We repeatedly seek out quantitative data, numbers, and degrees that describe upcoming weather conditions, even though deep down we constantly loathe doing so. We love what we hate and continue to desperately search for weather news.
The question posed by the two works, The Barometer and The Airbrushes, works made for specific locations on the Hill of Nymphs and the Observatory, is: Can we reach an experiential engagement with the physical aspects of the weather through the sense of things around us instead of an approach through information and calculated data? Emotion and synesthesia are the means proposed by the works to become part of the weather phenomena and the location in which they take place. The two temporary sculpture works are installed as parasites in the territory of scattered natural-artificial objects in the wider landscape of the Acropolis.
I would prefer that visitors experience the location of the Acropolis and Philopappos hills through the two installations, rather than claiming an aesthetic approach to the works themselves. The works indicate surrounding objects in the landscape as factors in the weather. Three objects of the environment, a plum tree, the Observatory and the Parthenon temple, host both works over time. The Barometer and the Airbrushes mediate to create the sense of the presence of the weather that is embodied in the temple, the observatory and the tree.
Airbrushes
The first suggestion is: Look at the plum tree, get closer and experience its presence and its gentle movement in the wind that blows. “Airbrushes” are reeds that hang from the tree and show the movement of the branches by drawing them on plates of sand. A complex experience of weather around the tree addresses the emotional perception of wind and weather rather than their crude calculation in numbers and degrees.
Barometer
The second suggestion is: Look at the Parthenon standing in front of you through the “Barometer” device (the barometer that measures the weight of the air here becomes a measure of the weight of the temple’s marbles). You are not obliged to see the ancient building as a cultural object with its intense symbolic weight. It could rather be felt as matter—i.e. marble, stone—standing upright against its own weight through time and geological time.
curated by: Daphne Dragona and Jussi Parikka
Roof
Onassis Foundation
Athens Observatory 2022
Photos:
Penelope Gerasidou
Stelios Tzetzias