an exhibition of Polish artists at the Pragovka Contemporary Art Gallery in Prague, curated by Joanna Glinkowska
Accompanying program - 23 April from 6 pm / Thursday
You are warmly invited to the accompanying programme of the group exhibition How to Talk to the Weather Demons on Thursday, 23 April from 6 pm.
The evening will begin with a guided tour of the exhibition led by curator Joanna Glinkowska, followed by the launch of a small catalogue.
This will be followed by a meeting with Katarzyna Roj, Programme Director of BWA Wrocław, who will discuss nature-culture spaces where water acts as a primary agent of regeneration. Drawing on seemingly disparate examples – from health rituals in Lower Silesian sanatoriums to the natural sewage farm in Wrocław – Roj will explore how water fosters resilience within both ecosystems and the human psyche.
Following the meeting, we will dive into the aesthetics of communist-era Poland, retracing the steps of As (Ace), a superhero on a mission to solve a bizarre mystery involving disappearing water, in the film Hydrozagadka (1970), directed by Andrzej Kondratiuk.
The How to Talk to the Weather Demons collective exhibition focuses on water in the context of climate change. In Slavic mythology, weather demons (pl. płanetnicy, en. weather demons) were creatures responsible for atmospheric phenomena—especially rainfall and storms (source)
The artists raise such issues as melting of the icebergs, access to drinking water, weather modification, and social issues that go hand-in-hand with water: inequality, crime, and corruption(source)
The installation by Sefa Sagir and Anna Klimczak, ‘Fractured Reflections’ (2025), is an interactive audio-visual work that responds to environmental changes in real time. Sound waves are visualised in a bowl filled with water, creating mesmerising patterns on its surface. The object is also set into vibration, which can be felt when touching the work. The artists collect data in real time and convert it into frequencies. For the Prague presentation of the installation, the artists used data on the condition of the Vltava River (water level and flow) collected from Czech water management institutions. The liquid thus becomes a conduit for river currents, signals from the surroundings, and a symbol of the flow of information. The installation, which at first glance resembles a huge ceramic bowl, is in fact a colossal satellite dish, used by the artists as a symbol of the reception and transmission of cosmic signals. The proportions of “Fractured Reflections”, however, have been composed in such a way that the object, together with the liquid, resembles an oversized, giant loudspeaker. The work can therefore be interpreted as a loudspeaker generating sound signal processing frequencies in deep, visual bass. Information about the state of the water, depicted in dynamic vibrations, reveals a complex network of interdependencies between individual actions and global processes.
No one believes in the power of weather demons or other supernatural creatures anymore; there is nothing to negotiate with, yet we keep counting on a miracle, convinced that “things will just work out”(source)
The exhibition aims to call attention to the weave of phenomena, to recall that the circulation of water on Earth is a complex system, and all interference sets off a chain of often unpredictable consequences (source)
The exhibition reminds us that technological progress cannot replace a change in human attitudes towards the environment and will not stop the climate catastrophe. At the same time, it points out that the climate crisis is sometimes used as an alibi to mask the damage resulting directly from the exploitation of nature (source)
artists: Centrala (Małgorzata Kuciewicz & Simone De Iacobis), Aleksandra Cieślewicz, Kornelia Dzikowska-Demirska, Anna Klimczak & Sefa Sagir, Marta Krześlak, Diana Lelonek, Agnieszka Mastalerz & Michał Szaranowicz, Alicja Patanowska, and Sara Rodowicz-Ślusarczyk