Shooting the Cloud

2025

In co-authorship with Vida Guzmić, and collaboration with Vladimir Đurđević

Production: Studio Pangolin, Cirkulacija2

Supported by: Ministry of Culture Slovenija, Ministry of Culture Croatia, City of Zagreb, City of Ljubljana

In collaboration: Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service (DHMZ), Slovenian Environment Agency (ARSO)

Thanks: Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb (new media department), Ivan Slipčević

Text by: Klara Debeljak

Foto: Katja Goljat

At the performance Shooting the Cloud, collaboration with Serbian meteorologist Vladimir Đurđević takes center stage. Around a reproduction of a meteorological table from the Zagreb Meteorological Center unfolds a series of dramaturgical and sonic-experimental phases. Live-manipulated sound and the intertwining of archival and authorial images build into a presentation of beliefs and tactics of various communities throughout history that believed weather to be susceptible to human and technological influence.

The constantly shifting ambient environment incorporates acoustic segments, such as church bells historically used as protection against hail, while simultaneously gently questioning the reciprocal relationship between weather and human interventions on the ground. The eyes follow the recurring element of the meteorological balloon, which functions as both a digital and material object of projection. The balloon inflates to the rhythm of breath from Vladimir’s lungs, lies deflated on a laboratory table, and simultaneously rises above a blue, anonymous urban sphere.

Performance: 4 channel video, 8 channel sound, metal table, objects, dry ice, DIY sound instrument, drawings

For video click HERE

With its many facets, the meteorological balloon marks weight and lightness, mobility, and ingenuity. The object fluidly shifts function through its often-overlooked role in history: as a tool for smuggling goods across borders, an instrument for measuring weather changes and temperatures, a polluter of the environment, and Vladimir’s DIY musical instrument that foretells storms. The layering of historical imaginaries and interpretations of the fundamental bodies of water and air reveals parallel existences of truths. “Songs were replaced by bells, bells were replaced by cannons, cannons were replaced by rockets,” yet all water still comes from the sky.

Excerpt from a text by [Klara Debeljak]