Opening of Ivar Veermäe’s exhibition “Earth-Keepers, Wind-Lickers and Rain-Touchers”

On Friday 16 January at 17.30, the Estonian artist Ivar Veermäe’s exhibition “Earth-Keepers, Wind-Lickers and Rain-Touchers” opens at the Exhibition Hall of the Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre (KCCC). The exhibition runs until 15 February.

In techno-utopian dreams, human beings are imagined to be capable of controlling the global climate system. One of the most realistic and most scientifically researched proposals is stratospheric aerosol injection: spraying large quantities of aerosols into the stratosphere. There they would scatter solar radiation and thus reduce the amount of energy reaching the Earth’s surface.

The exhibition “Earth-Keepers, Wind-Lickers and Rain-Touchers” begins with an attempt to contextualise this idea. What kind of undertaking is it? What infrastructure would it require? What is the stratosphere — what sort of place is it and where is it? Who can act there, and how? What mental images are associated with it?

The greater part of the exhibition is devoted to Ivar Veermäe’s own investigations of the boundary between the Earth’s surface and the stratosphere. Using weather balloons — a technology that has recently attracted particular attention in Lithuania — the artist sent various objects to an altitude of about 30 kilometres. There the balloons burst and the objects fell back to earth.

The second installation is based on the artist’s conversations with scientists and academics working in the field of climate modification. It covers a broad range of themes: visual models and their impact on the real world, the uncertainties surrounding geoengineering, questions of power and of reducing CO₂, and speculations about global warming and the possibility of applying stratospheric aerosol injection.

Ivar Veermäe was born in 1982 in Tallinn and currently lives and works in Berlin. In 2009 he completed a bachelor’s degree in photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts, and in 2014 a master’s degree at the Weissensee Kunsthochschule, Faculty of Spatial Strategies, in Berlin. The artist has received a number of grants.

We invite you to the exhibition opening, which will take place on 16 January at 17.30 at the KCCC Exhibition Hall.

The exhibition is supported by: the Estonian Cultural Endowment, the Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre.

Opening hours of the KCCC Exhibition Hall (Didžioji Vandens g. 2, Klaipėda): Wednesday–Sunday 11.00–19.00 (closed on public holidays). Photographs and video will be taken during the exhibition opening. Please note that participants may appear in photographs and video recordings of the event published in various media. Admission to the exhibition is free on the opening day; afterwards there is a charge.