Sourced from climate science websites, a video navigates over maps of different parts of the world (the maps are relevant to each location where the work is exhibited) showing the extent of flooding and land-loss different areas will suffer this century in a +2C and a +4C scenario. A soundtrack created in collaboration with the Liverpool Socialist Singers accompanies the maps; it imagines the sonorities of consecutive rising sea waves and references the waves of human noise created in eco-protests that Karikis recorded over the years. A two-channel video presents a transcript of an imagined conversation between two young people in 2080. They ask what brings humans together and reflect on the instinct to sustain and love all life, and our responsibility toward future generations. This conversation was developed in collaboration with 20-year-old students from Birmingham School of Art using instructional music scores by the queer musicologist and composer Pauline Oliveros.

Taking the form of a four-channel video installation with surround sound, The Weather Orchestra is an ode to the elements, expressing both our deep relationship and entanglement with the weather and celebrating our connection to the atmosphere and the earth.

In this installation the gallery space transforms into an indoor weather system generated through sound vibration and singing. Three projections feature musicians performing instruments and analogue noise machines designed to imitate the sounds of natural phenomena. A Baroque wind machine, Latin American ceremonial rain sticks, an ocean drum, a water-phone, a thunder-tube and metal thunder-sheets fill the space with a meteorological music and allude to the forces and magnificence of nature. In the middle of this soundscape and swept up by the noise, human voices burst in folk songs expressing joy, fear and wonder toward all elements surrounding us.

The Weather Orchestra is part of Karikis’s project Acoustics of Resistance – a project comprising of works that collectively tune into the sonorities of socio-political change and ecology. It rejoices in the transformative power of listening and sound-making while declaring that changing the course of climate change is in our hands.

It has been created in collaboration with performers from mainland Portugal, Madeira, Syria and Denmark, and continues to expand through the research of musical instruments imitating meteorological sounds and folk songs in different cultural contexts.

In this installation the gallery space transforms into an indoor weather system generated through sound vibration and singing. Three projections feature musicians performing instruments and analogue noise machines designed to imitate the sounds of natural phenomena. A Baroque wind machine, Latin American ceremonial rain sticks, an ocean drum, a water-phone, a thunder-tube and metal thunder-sheets fill the space with a meteorological music and allude to the forces and magnificence of nature. In the middle of this soundscape and swept up by the noise, human voices burst in folk songs expressing joy, fear and wonder toward all elements surrounding us.

The Weather Orchestra is part of Karikis’s project Acoustics of Resistance – a project comprising of works that collectively tune into the sonorities of socio-political change and ecology. It rejoices in the transformative power of listening and sound-making while declaring that changing the course of climate change is in our hands.

It has been created in collaboration with performers from mainland Portugal, Madeira, Syria and Denmark, and continues to expand through the research of musical instruments imitating meteorological sounds and folk songs in different cultural contexts.

Performers: Mariana Camacho, Salman Duski, Helena Espeval, Joana Guerra, Maria do Mar, João Neves, Helene Tungelund

Sound Recording: Raquel Castro, Mikhail Karikis, Margaryta Kulichova

Camera: Mikhail Karikis, Uriel Orlow

Costumes: Silvo Design

5.1 Sound Mix: Hugo Leitão

Created with the support of Lisboa Soa Portugal, Onassis Stegi Foundation Greece, SPOR Festival Denmark, MIMA School of Art & Creative Industries UK, The Common Guild Scotland

Special Thanks: Raquel Castro and the entire Lisboa Soa team, Fernando Belo at Carpintarias de São Lazaro, Centro Cultural Malaposta, Diana Policarpo.