Meteorological Exercises
Basic information
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Project Description
This project is subjected to the weather the way we are subjected to it. It is a direct response on what is happening right now and uses what was given to us by nature as a main material of work. Can we create art pieces based on a current weather situation? Ephemeral materials like wind, rain, cloud, fog, snow, hail the are main resources. Can art be weather-specific? The goal is not to change the weather, nor protect from it, but acknowledge it and use its conditions as the main energy of art.
Geographical Scope
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Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
EU Programme or fund
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Description of the project
Summary
Is it the rain that rains or is it the cloud that rains? Looking at the sky I cannot solve this dilemma. I'm writing this text from Amsterdam on the day when “Hurricane Piotr” hit the city. During my writing the level of rain increased and I'm worried. I should stay inside (in my shelter) and work hard, but I'm looking outside the window. Is it possible to bring some of the outside in? Is it possible to use wind as a material and a main fuel of the work? Currently a main focus in my practice is the ongoing series "Meteorological Exercises" in which the grand vicissitudes of the weather are transmuted into materials and objects of the everyday. Works where I try (in a poetic, visual and non scientific way) to create meteorological environments using everyday human possibilities and objects. I'm interested in life, movements in still, everyday objects, ephemeral materials, simple gestures, and basic weather mechanics. How can I activate them to create "domestic weather"? How can I use the environments which weather creates as a main space for performance? My proposal is a project in which I will organize a series of performances (at least 10) which would be in a direct response/a dialog with the weather in the upcoming year period (2022-2023). The performances could happen outside (like for example working with big puddles after the intensive rain) but also inside (using wind, creating a “draft” in a room as a mechanism for moving sculpture). The weather would be main performative element and the piece itself only existing in the specific moment. It is to recognize something that is so common that it is almost invisible and understand how much we can use weather for poetical and artistic purposes. The work existing live, for an audience, the information of the event and location (which can be dynamic) would be published on the website and sent via newsletter. Some of the works would be also consulted with scientists.
Key objectives for sustainability
One of the curators said that Im "an artist who makes art from almost nothing". What he means is that the works I propose are highly focused on what's there: in nature, in weather, in space. I can not control the weather or force it, but I am ready to respond to it, dialog with it, and provoke for more performativity. It requires constant research, observations in order to acknowledge and make visible what is already there. It is the practice of shaping the space and environment around me knowing that It will repay me. Is it maybe a sustainability model of art which is based on our natural shifts? The art performance is a local manifestation of the weather, the body we already exist in. Is this weather starts here, where I am, or is it simply now entering the space of my perception through art? The practice is based on ephemeral materials and trying to add as less as possible. Almost everybody knows what the weather is, and where is it, but yet if I try to point it or locate it - it disappear. The goal of meteorological exercises is a try to grasp it, poetically speaking.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Does the weather have a function? Do we have a function in it if the only thing we can do is to talk about it or protect ourselves from it? We can not change it. Meteorological Exercises aim to show the aesthetics of our invisible surroundings - how beautiful the wind can be, how scary the water drops are, how the sun can transform a surface etc. It’s looking in our nature to be the material for aesthetics. It is not a representation of the weather though but the weather itself is a main character. If we expose, see more of our influence on what’s is already there I hope we can have a bigger sense of belonging, reconnection and be awareness of the impact.
Key objectives for inclusion
Mum is calling me...
- Hi, Piotr how are you?
- OK... I'm now in Amsterdam, how is the weather in Krakow?
The nostalgic gesture of imaging my own body subjected by the weather that subjects my mums body in a desire of empathy that makes us dream of a proximity we do not have. The weather is the thing which connects us without borders, it is a one body in which we already exists. The weather is the most universal and egalitarian subject on earth. It is the first subject to bring with a stranger. This is one of the reasons why I would like to perform with it. I'm depending on it like everyone else. The performance series asks if we are in the role of a spectator or a witness? We are equal but the nature seems to be unstoppable.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
The series aims to be accessible to everyone and be just a fluid reaction to current weather situations. It connects sustainability of nature via choice of material, the performance character as a method of recognizing aesthetics and open location, without any ticket to a universal subject of everyday life. The location of the performances is not in one space, one country which makes it also more international.
