Everybody Talks About The Weather

The small-talk topic as viewed by artists and scientists, revealing a cultural fascination with the climate

This volume accompanies a group exhibition exploring the semantics of "weather" in visual art, taking atmospheric conditions as a point of departure to investigate the climate emergency. More than 50 works by contemporary artists and a complementary selection of historical artworks trace the various ways in which climate and weather have shaped our histories and how humanity has dealt with our everyday exposure to meteorological events. The exhibition reveals artists' long-standing interest in "talking about the weather," from allegorical and en plein air paintings to recent multimedia installations and transnational activism. The book includes 18 richly illustrated essays by curators, art historians, architects, activists, linguists, meteorologists and scientists. The book also contains a fundamental bibliography of climate dynamics comprising nearly 500 texts accompanied by maps, diagrams and other graphic representations.