Why does the art world shy away from reflecting on climate change through artworks? Dieter Roelstraete curated the show Everybody Talks About the Weather at Fondazione Prada in Venice
The lack of representation of the current weather in art
The realization of the existence of climate change is quite recent. Consequently, its introduction as an issue in the circuit of culture is also struggling to grow. In the art world in particular, the representation of current weather has not yet been placed in the context of criticism.
Yet the weather is something that has always defined and shaped the existence of human beings. Essential in the evolution of humanity and in the relationship with other people, also just for cheat chatting.
Everybody Talks About the Weather: art is not reflecting on climate change
Everybody Talks About the Weather: is the title of the exhibition and Fondazione Prada explains why: «The climate crisis we are experiencing could be the deadliest of dangers that humankind has ever faced in its 100,000-year history».
The exhibition at the Venice venue displays a critical analysis made by contemporary and past works.
The climate crisis has yet to generate the first body of critically recognized masterpieces, the Foundation continues.
Everybody Talks About the Weather finds as a common basis of development of the works a pessimism due to the inability of human beings to act in the face of these events and their helplessness.
Humanity confronts climate events: Everybody Talks About the Weather
Curated by Dieter Roelstraete, the exhibition uses weather conditions to illustrate what is the recent issue of climate change. In the setting of the historic palace of Ca’ Corner della Regina about fifty works by contemporary artists mingle with a selection of ancient works.
Comparison and historicization through a kind of timeline allow the viewer to understand how weather has shaped cultural identity in different eras.
In addition to this, it is possible to see how weather events have always influenced the everyday life of human beings. Art and science work together on two complementary levels to offer usable and research-related works in Everybody Talks About the Weather.
A ledwall with weather forecasts on the ground floor at Everybody Talks About the Weather
Contemporary and past visions and discordant and opposing notions are interwoven, giving an overview between the present and the past. The series of former artworks meet at the foreground with contemporary ones trying to devise a potential continuity between historical periods.
Evident is the interest that art has developed over time with respect to the question of the weather, ranging, as the foundation reiterates, from allegorical and en plein air paintings to recent multimedia installations and transnational activism. Before getting to the artworks, a ledwall with weather forecasts from around the world is placed on the ground floor.
Everybody Talks About the Weather: artistic research side by side with scientific research
Scientific research is a key element that is intertwined with artistic creativity in the description of artworks. In fact, the exhibition features a collaboration with the New Institute Centre For Environmental Humanities (NICHE) at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice.
«The goal is to frame the environmental crisis and its undeniable impact on our lives through the evocation, representation and analysis of weather phenomena», explains Miuccia Prada, president of Fondazione Prada. Addressing contemporary issues is the foundation’s interest.
Scientific research made accessible to the public – Human Brains and Anatomical Waxes
Recent work has included addressing issues such as the evolution of the study of human thought and the meaning of the body in society through the exhibitions Human Brains: It Begins with an Idea, presented in Venice in 2022, and Anatomical Waxes: The Florence Specola | David Cronenberg, in the milanese center .
Academic and scientific research plays a relevant role for these projects, which amplify it by making it accessible to the public. The sources are displayed to the audience as well as the works in a series of research stations. Here more than 500 books, scholarly publications, and articles can be consulted along with interviews with scholars and activists.
Dieter Roelstraete illustrating Everybody Talks About the Weather
People love talking about the weather, so opens his account of the exhibition by the curator, Dieter Roelstraete. Starting with this topic he calls mundane, the exhibition builds on the idea of delving into the climate emergency.
The inspiration for the title is partly due to a poster that appeared in Germany, declaring that one, along with the book The Great Blindness by Amitav Gosh. Among the artists involved in the exhibition and mentioned by Roelstraete is Pieter Vermeersch.
The choice of Venice as the city of the exhibition Everybody Talks About the Weather
«Author of an installation that traces moments in history when works of art bear witness to the influence of climate change on culture», the curator points out. Works of art appear in this context as environmental testimonies, with meanings that also differ according to the historical period in which they are enjoyed. Some of the works are divided by weather phenomena such as wind, rain or snow.
The issues of climate conditions are complemented by those of desertification, migration, pollution and sea level rise. The decision to have a solid scientific basis on which to base this exhibition seemed clear and necessary, he highlights. The choice of Venice as the city of the exposition is not random, as it is one of the towns that is sinking rapidly due to rising sea levels, Roelstraete concludes.
Fondazione Prada
Fondazione Prada has been committed to promoting cultural research since its founding in 1993. In this project it has continued the work already done with Human Brains: It Begins with an Idea and Anatomical Waxes: The Specola of Florence | David Cronenberg. Here the creative elements merge with the integrated tools of science.
