Contribution to the Exhibition Weather Engines, curated by Daphne Dragona and Jussi Parikka, Spring 2022. Lecture performance that took place at the Sanctuary of the Nymphs, a place dedicated to minor female deities that corresponded to various categories of nature such as mountains, groves, trees, water, the sea, and the winds. Focusing on the winds, and more specifically Boreus and Zephyr, the lecture performance was based on texts and verses in order to make a word play around weather. The title of the performance comes from Aristophanes' “Nephelae” (“The Clouds”) and satirizes the scientific dimension of weather forecasting. Weather, in Greek antiquity, meant the right time for something, and was a god. Weather forecasting, a science of today that has its roots in the past, will be discussed in relation to ancient divination, Hippocratic medicine, the relationship of winds with breath and inspiration, in a ritual discourse of prediction and propitiation. An offering to the god winds, Boreus and Zephyr, and our anima, psyche. 

Performance photos : Penelope Gerasimou

Below a painting of Boreas abducting Oritheia near Ilissos River, by Photis Kontoglou