“Weather Engines” explores the poetics, politics, and technologies of the environment from the ground to the sky, and from soil to atmosphere.
Continuing her series of works “Bodies”, Lito Kattou develops a cluster of two dimensional sculptures related to the warming climate of the Mediterranean. Structured from an assembly of human, technological and natural parts, the figures emerge as environmental beings. Although they cannot be identified with known characters or myths, the drawings and imagery on their epidermis reveal their geographic origins. The element of fire traced on the bodies implies that they have departed from turbulent locations, holding memories of wildfire incidents or being capable of healing affected places and traumas. These anthropomorphic but also eerie bodies are accompanied by elements that the artist collected at mediterranean regions; elements like thorns and baskets bear a physical remembrance of loss and ecological destruction but also a reality that is to be opposed by bodies captured in movement.
Petros Moris´ "Anagram (Orgic Clouds, Litho Droughts)" is a marble deposit created as an apotropaic amulet for the increasingly extreme weather phenomena of the Earth. The work examines geology, climate and culture as an integrated network that integrates inorganic matter, biological processes and cultural codes into a common "Earth System". The letters of the poem were cut with the help of a water jet (CNC waterjet) and rearranged inside the surface, disturbing the natural pattern of the stone. The surface of the marble looks like a cloudy sky and, at the same time, is a visual codification of the slow geological processes of the planet. Floods and droughts - which are becoming more and more frequent and frequent - are reflected in an anagram poem in two parts and are discussed together as the catastrophic consequences of climate change, deforestation and human intervention.
The exhibition is curated by Daphne Dragona and Jussi Parikka
Now on view at Onassis Stegi until 15 May 2022
