In Venice, Fondazione Prada puts art in dialogue with the weather

From May 20 to November 26, 2023, the spaces of the historic palace of Ca’ Corner della Regina, the Venetian headquarters of Fondazione Prada, will host Everybody Talks About the Weather. A research exhibition conceived and curated by Dieter Roelstraete that aims to explore the meanings of weather invisual art, taking weather conditions as a premise for addressing the issue of theongoing climate emergency.

More than fifty works by contemporary artists and a complementary selection of historical works trace the various ways in which climate and weather have shaped our cultural identities and how humanity has dealt with our daily exposure to weather events. The installation, designed by New York-based studio 2x4, interweaves the artistic dimension of the project with a series of scientific insights developed in collaboration with the New Institute Centre For Environmental Humanities (NICHE) at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

The project was born with the idea of taking weather as a starting point to highlight the urgency of climate change, establishing an empirical equation between meteorology and climatology, using the tools of art and science together," said Miuccia Prada, President of Fondazione Prada. “The goal is to frame the environmental crisis and its undeniable impact on our lives through the evocation, representation and analysis of meteorological phenomena. Climate is a global and universal issue, affecting the actions and destinies of women and men in all regions of the world. Therefore, talking about weather today means talking about and worrying about everyone’s future.”

This project is intended to be another attempt to address broad cultural challenges with the integrated tools of science and artistic creation: from the evolution of the study of human thought to the changing meanings of bodies in our societies to the looming climate crisis. Through these activities Fondazione Prada wants to disseminate new knowledge and share the latest results of academic and scientific research with a wide audience.

The exhibition is spread over two levels of Ca’ Corner della Regina interweaving the two dimensions of research: the artistic and the scientific. On the ground floor, a large ledwall loops weather forecasts extracted from traditional and online media from around the world. In the rooms on the second floor, on the other hand, historical artworks share the same exhibition space with recent works and new commissions, establishing an ideal continuity between past, present and future or, conversely, triggering a short circuit between opposing visions and discordant notions. The exhibition highlights the artists’ constant focus on “talking about time,” from allegorical paintings and en plein air paintings to recent multimedia installations and transnational activism.

A series of “research stations” brings together more than five hundred books, scholarly publications and articles, as well as a selection of video materials and interviews with scholars and activists. These materials allow the public to freely consult the various bibliographic sources of the extensive research behind this project and to delve deeper into the scientific and cultural issues addressed by the exhibition.

Artists in the exhibition: Sophia Al-Maria, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Shunivai Ashoona, Anonimo veneto, Ursula Biemann, Nina Canell, Vija Celmins, Paolo Cirio, Gustave Courbet, Vittore Grubicy de Dragon, Jason Dodge, Ayan Farah, Theaster Gates, Beate Geissler & Oliver Sann, Antony Gormley, Hans Haacke, Ichoryusai Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai, Jitish Kallat, Anne-Christine Klarmann, ZdenÄ›k Košek, Goshka Macuga, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Santu Mofokeng, Plinio Nomellini, Carlo Francesco Nuvolone, Alix Oge, Richard Onyango, Chantal Peñalosa, Dan Peterman, Nick Raffel, Raqs Media Collective, Gerhard Richter, Thomas Ruff, Tiffany Sia, Himali Singh Soin, Vivian Suter, Fredrik Vaerslev, Pieter Vermeersch, Pae White, Tsutomu Yamamoto, Yang Yongliang.

For info: https://www.fondazioneprada.org/

Hours: Daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Tuesdays.

Image: Richard Onyango, Tsunami (2005). Courtesy of The Jean Pigozzi African Art Collection. Photo by Maurice Aeschimann, Geneva

In Venice, Fondazione Prada puts art in dialogue with the weather

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