Intervention #29: Atmospheric Phenomena

This installation, placed in the lobby and restaurant of the Ještěd Hotel, focuses on humankind's efforts to understand and capture the mysterious phenomena occurring in the Earth's atmosphere. We are fascinated by the beauty of the optical interplay between sunrays and raindrops or even threatening storm clouds. We observe, investigate, and measure them, yet despite our rich knowledge about them, they are still to some extent unreal, distant, and elusive to us. We feel a power from them that repeatedly transcends us. Though advanced technologies currently offer myriad possibilities, in some ways we have not strayed far from the original mythological interpretations of the events that surround us. Not many people these days interpret extraordinary phenomena in the sky as indicators of a "higher power" or as harbingers of major historical events, yet when we observe the dramatic changes in the weather and the movements of the planets in the sky with the naked eye, we still feel we are encountering something supernatural. The artworks are displayed in the landmark TV transmitter building at the top of Mount Ještěd, where, thanks to the ubiquitous glass surfaces, they are in permanent contact with the spectacular views of the surrounding landscape and the wide expanse of the sky.  Each responds in its own way to the fascinating, superhuman phenomena.

Michal Cáb and Bronislava Orlická's installation follows up on their earlier joint exhibition, The Storm Hunters, from which Orlická's large-scale painting of an abstracted cloud emerged. Michal Cáb has prepared a brand new audio composition combining the natural sounds of various weather conditions including thunderstorms, thunder and rain with original electronic music. The two works complement each other, offering spectators a complex experience in which they can listen to Cáb's composition while immersing themselves with their gaze  into the clouds nearby - whether those that are painted or surrounding the Ještěd peak, which are made visible on all sides by the hotel's walls of glass. 

Richard Loskot's light installation is a response to Meteorite Fall, a work by Jaroslava Brychtová and Stanislav Libensky. The artist has complemented the evocative series of glass objects with a light disk on a field of azure, which continuously transforms along a scale of cool and warm colors. The work symbolizes the processes of the sun in the sky and illuminates how this ancient aesthetic sensibility has influenced our perception of color. Orange (previously named fire orange) and blue are complementary colors, and their combination is naturally pleasing to the human eye. The artist enhances this feeling through visual abstraction. The resulting effect is created by a set of light color fields mutually suffusing each other. 

The painter Karolína Rossí presents a trio of paintings from her series In the World of the Djinns. In her artistic practice, the artist focuses on the psychological image of humankind. Her paintings are often excursions into the depths of the soul and the human subconscious. The exhibited paintings are portrayals of intangible reality, which may appear to us as distant, mist-shrouded formations, cosmic structures or illusory landscapes. 

Adéla Součková and her video Weather of Time bring two essential and unexpectedly opposing elements into the exhibition. One is the visuality of the video, stylized into a classic weather forecast such as we might see on television.  The work therefore seems directly intended for the context of the lobby of the Ještěd Hotel, on top of which the television transmitter is located. The second, fundamental element is the video's unexpected departure from this traditional news format in terms of its content. While the weather forecaster talks about the expected meteorological phenomena of the coming days, close observation reveals that his commentary refers not to the physical impact of the sky and wind on the human inhabitants of the planet, but their emotions, experiences and interrelationships.