Weather or Not at Plug in City, Strijp-S Weather or Not at Plug in City, Strijp-S Weather or Not at Plug in City, Strijp-S Weather or Not at Plug in City, Strijp-S Weather or Not at Plug in City, Strijp-S

Weather or Not at Plug in City, Strijp-S

MU plays outside for a year

Few topics are as trending as the weather. If it isn't our daily obsession with temperature, rain or wind it's the transformations in our atmosphere and climate. We just can't stop talking about it.¨

Even more, climatological changers like global warming, new iceages, extreme rainfall and other 'nature disasters' have been on many political as well as social agenda’s for years now.¨

Obviously artists and designers aren’t unaffected by a theme like this. From Berndnaut Smilde’s artifical clouds to Alistair McClymont making a waterdrop float steady in space and Emily DiCarlo’s sunsets in different timezones? ¨Weather or Not wants to highlight the creative potency of works with the most unpredictable of elements, inside as well as outside on the terrain of Strijp-S.¨

Including, throughout the year, a program filled with discussions, workshops, debates, experiments and idea exchange between climate experts, creatives and the audience. Weather or Not’s goal is to to make climate change tangible in a playful manner and to let the audience be weatherforecasters of their own uncertain future.

Project 1: Same Time, Always Behind by Emily DiCarlo (CAN) and Hanneke Wetzer (NL) 21 Jun - 31 Aug
In this ongoing, performance-for-video series, Same Time, Always Behind highlights the potential of the performative gesture and its connective power between two individuals miles apart.  For each performance, DiCarlo collaborates with a participant living at least one time zone away to witness a sun set. Performed within the same 24HR duration of time, each participant films their respective time zone's sunset and writes about their subjective observations. The video footage and the written experiences are then edited and viewed together, resulting in a "compounding of time" as though the two individuals had been physically together, sharing in the same experience.

Project 2: Dear Climate 3 Sept - 11 Oct
Five international artists (Marina Zurkow, Una Chaudhuri, Oliver Kellhammer, Fritz Ertl and Sarah Rothberg) began Dear Climate in 2012 by looking for a new way to talk about the weather. They wanted a different vocabulary: instead of crisis and catastrophe, they wanted the familiar and ordinary; instead of desperation and heroism, playfulness and friendliness. Instead of imagining mass movements or calling for community action, they were interested in finding a more personal relationship to climate change. Read more. 

Project 3: I Wish To Be Rain by Studio PSK (UK) 17 Oct - 25 Oct
One of the only certainties in life is that of death. Yet it has been subject to far less technical and social (r)evolutions in comparison to all the other aspects of modern life. To challenge the public's perception of what it means to die in the 21st Century, London-based Studio PSK designed the project ‘I Wish To Be Rain’.
With ‘I Wish To Be Rain’ they link the scattering of ashes after a cremation to an increasing ability for humans to manipulate natural phenomena, whether it be floods, earthquakes or rain. The latter is done by dispersing either carbon or silver iodide particles within clouds, causing water vapour to condense around the particles and fall down as rain. But Studio PSK wondered if a person could also transform themselves literary into a natural spectacle? Can we be ambitious in our death as well, and return to the earth not as ashes but as rain?

Project 4: Borealis by Chris Kabel (NL) 7 nov - december
Curtains of light floating in dark skies. Polar skies, the lights of winter. Made from woven fabric with a special glow in the dark yarn and a new technique invented to create very fluent transitions between delicate gradients in fabric. Digitally produced patterns are converted into fabric keeping this subtle color transition fluent after the translation from one medium to the other. Every now and then the lights are briefly turned on to charge the glow in the dark yarn of the fabric. When the lights are turned off again the fabrics glow with a soft light in their pitch black surroundings. In the darkness the woven pattern floats in space. The famed ephemeral Northern lights have been transformed into a tangible experience. Developed in 2013 for the Fogo Island Inn, Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Canada. Development and production in collaboration with TextielLab in Tilburg, the Netherlands.

Project 5: Weer anders by Mike Roelofs (NL) January 8th - February 7th, 2016
The photographer Mike Roelofs from Eindhoven, visited Spain, Greenland, Ethiopia and Bangladesh to portray how landscapes change through climate change and how people interact with it. On show soon in the MU Weather or Not container.

Project 6: Summon Wind, Call for Rain, Disperse Fog by Esther Kokmeijer   February 20 - March 20, 2016
'Summon Wind, Call for Rain, Disperse Fog', is a series of installations by Esther Kokmeijer that are part of her ongoing research project Because we Meet. This trilogy, focusing on the human ambition to control nature and to collaborate with it, can be understood according to the three phases of water: ice, water and vapor.
In MU’s containers, Kokmeijer has captured natural phenomena such as fog and wind in sculptural installations. Enchantingly beautiful – but not just that: some installations also have practical purposes, such as helping to forecast the weather.
Kokmeijer hopes to present the outcome of her entire study in 2018-2019, at various locations in a traveling exhibition. In the meantime, parts of her research will already come to life, not only to enchant the audience, but also to contribute to the research as a whole. Weather or Not #6: Summon Wind, Call for Rain, Disperse Fog, is one of these interim exhibitions offering a peek into the process.
The installations presented in the MU containers at Strijp-S evolved during a research into weather modification projects in China, that was made possible by the Mondriaan Fund.
There will be a special closing event during the Equinox on Sunday, March 20th.

Weather or Not #7: Why tidy my exhibition space when the whole world is in a mess? by Sharon Houkema (NL)  March 31 - May 15, 2016
"Why tidy my exhibition space when the whole world is in a mess?" asks artist Sharon Houkema and transforms the space into the untidy 'oikos' of an imaginary environmentally consciouss consumer. Reminiscent of a natural history diorama we see animals such as polar bears and whales on dishes, laundry and food packaging, with their Eco-certifications, logos and calls for action all equally competing for our attention.
The 80’s Greenpeace slogan of which the title is an adaptation brings into mind a child questioning the parent on why it should obey cleaning rules when grownups fail to take their responsibility in the world. While responsibility was placed mainly in the hands of the individual consumer, corporations were (and are still) left off the hook. The installation displays environmental history through everyday consumer articles from the previous decades up to the present moment in which climate change is rapidly unfolding.

Weather or Not #8: Clouds from both sides by Karolina Sobecka (USA) 26 May - 25 Sept, 2016 Clouds are visible from two sides, looking up from the ground but also when looking down from the sky. The exhibition 'Clouds from both sides' by Polish artist Karolina Sobecka wil be the eighth and last Weather or Not exhibition at the MU container at Plug in City, Strijp-S. The exhibition wil ben on show starting Thursday May 26th. More info soon.


When throughout the year
Open Thursday & Friday 10.00 - 18.00h, Saturday 11.00 - 17.00h, Sunday 13.00 - 17.00h


Where Strijp-S, across Onder de Leidingstraat