NEON participates in the World Weather Network, a pioneering alliance of visual arts institutions from 28 countries, to create a global digital platform for artistic creation on the global climate crisis.

The World Weather Network is a network of “weather stations” created by 28 independent cultural organisations in 28 countries around the world and in diverse locations such as oceans, deserts, mountains, farmland, rainforests, observatories, lighthouses and cities. Through the network, artists, writers and scientists will share “weather reports” in the form of images, narratives, observations about local weather conditions from different parts of the world.

A new global platform is being created, expressing voices and opinions on the urgency of climate change and inviting the international community to see, hear, learn and act. Connecting artists, writers, scientists and environmentalists, the World Weather Network brings together different perspectives and ways of understanding weather in different locations and languages around the world.

112, Climate Tone

As part of the World Weather Network, NEON presents 112, Climate Tone, broadcasting from Greece a distress signal on climate change and the environmental crisis. The program includes 3 different “weather stations” – audio, photo and podcast – that will regularly feed the World Weather Network’s digital platform with material.

112 is the pan-European communication and information number for emergencies, which are increasingly linked to climate change. The sound tone that accompanies the alert warns and at the same time reminds of the general state of danger facing the environment worldwide.

Musician and composer Stavros Gasparatos and photographer Natalia Tsoukala participate in the 112, Climate Tone project with new commissions. The scientific advisor is Professor of Meteorology and Climatology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and lead author of Chapter 6 of the report of the International Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 2021, Prodromos Zanis, who will contribute to the development of the programme’s weather stations.

The sound station is being created by musician and composer Stavros Gasparatos to explore and unfold a correlation of sound with current climate data recorded by weather stations in Greece. By exploring the experience of listening to a sound of danger, of alarm, as an act of initiating concentric ripples that awaken our sensory field on the time axis producing coherent thoughts and automatic meanings, Stavros Gasparatos will create a sound machine that will mobilize about current climate data and the climate crisis. A tone of danger for the climate.

The photo station is created by photographer Natalia Tsoukala to document the transformations of the earth’s landscape in Greece by energy production and distribution networks, accounting for the energy industry as a central parameter for climate change on a global level. From the factories in the Greek periphery and countryside to the daily landscape of the city as shaped by energy consumption patterns, Natalia Tsoukala will create a photographic archive to unfold this narrative in our land alongside images that capture the weather on a daily basis: Greece 2022

The conversations (podcasts) are a set of recordings that broadcast a message from the local to the international, Greece from the Mediterranean basin sends a tone of distress to the global ecosystem. To this end, with Prodromos Zanis as scientific advisor, scientists, institutions, organisations and groups focusing on environmental and climate change issues will be invited to participate.

NEON’s editorial team consists of Fani Kafantaris, Ioanna Mimi and Andrew Spyrou. According to the curators: “The 112, Climate Tone project creates idiosyncratic visual weather stations that look from the local to the global scale. They come from. Through conversations with local scientists and researchers, reading the way local equipment participates in the world’s network, the 112, Climate Tone project attempts a record of the ‘now’ in our geographic zone seeking to contribute to the global climate dialogue.

The World Weather Network digital platform starts broadcasting on Tuesday 21 June, a landmark day for the Earth: the longest day in the northern hemisphere and the shortest day in the southern hemisphere.

The launch of the programme is marked by the presentation of a joint “special report” created by all the participating organisations. A video that is a window on the world and shows the local weather conditions in all the countries of the network at a particular moment in time.

In parallel, special reports will be created by authors from different regions, commissioned by the London Review of Books, which will be presented on the platform at regular intervals.

More about the World Weather Network platform worldweathernetwork.org

Information at neon.org.gr

The World Weather Network platform brings together 28 independent cultural organisations:

ARTANGEL, London

ARTINGENIUM, San Sebastián

ART JAMEEL, Dubai

ARTSONJE CENTER, Seoul

BUNDANON, New South Wales

DHAKA ART SUMMIT, Bangladesh

ENOURA OBSERVATORY, Japan

NICOLETTA FIORUCCI FOUNDATION, Grasse

FOGO ISLAND ARTS, Newfoundland

FONDAZIONE SANDRETTO RE REBAUDENGO, Torino

HOLT-SMITHSON FOUNDATION, New Mexico

ICELANDIC ARTS CENTRE, Reykjavik

IHME HELSINKI / PRO ARTE FOUNDATION, Helsinki

KHOJ, New Delhi

MALI, Lima

MCAD, Manila

NEON, Athens

NGO, Johannesburg

WAAG, Amsterdam

RUYA FOUNDATION, Iraq

SAHA, Istanbul

SOPHIA POINT, Guyana

TERRA FOUNDATION, Comporta

TE TUHI, Aotearoa / New Zealand

UCCA, Beijing / Qinhuangdao

YINKA SHONIBARE FOUNDATION, Lagos / Ijebu

32 DEGREES EAST, Uganda

For the editors

Stavros Gasparatos (b. 1975, Patras) is an artist, musician and composer. Apart from his solo works, he composes music for dance, theatre and cinema.

His compositions have been performed in the most important theatres and concert halls in Greece (including the ancient theatre of Epidaurus, the Onassis Cultural Centre, the Athens Concert Hall, etc.) as well as in London, Paris, New York, LA, St. Louis, Macao, Rome, Naples, Berlin, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Munich, Toronto, Sofia, Amsterdam and others. He has composed music for more than 130 productions and is considered one of the most important and prolific composers of the new Greek generation.

Gasparatos composes minimalist, instrumental and experimental music as well as sound installations. Since 2017 he has been artistic coordinator of the Transmedia Workshop of the National Opera House, while in 2019 he was appointed Member of the Board of Directors of the Athens & Epidaurus Festival. http://www.stavrosgasparatos.com

Natalia Tsoukala (b. 1980, Athens) studied photography at Focus in Athens and at Nottingham Trent University, England. Since 2005 she has been working as a freelancer photographing houses, portraits, still life, art performances etc. He collaborates with NEON, Okeanos Foundation, Pelagos Institute of Cetological Research, Benaki Museum, as well as with other prestigious cultural institutions in Greece and abroad.

In 2012 and for about a year, he crossed the Pacific Ocean by traditional means of navigation, as the official photographer of the “Te Mana O Te Moana” expedition. The aim of the expedition was to raise awareness and promote sustainable development solutions for the Pacific, by linking traditional ancestral principles and modes of navigation with renewable energy.

He has been involved in many projects around the world and has a passion for traveling and documenting nature in all its forms. She lives and works in

Greece. https://www.nataliatsoukala.com/

Prodromos Zanis is Professor at the Department of Meteorology and Climatology, Department of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh). He holds a degree in Physics from the Department of Physics of AUTh (1992). He received his MSc in Atmospheric Sciences in 1994 (School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, England) and his PhD in Natural Sciences in 1999 (Department of Meteorology and Climatology, Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland).

He is Lead Author on Chapter 6 of the Sixth Assessment Report of the Working Group I (WGI) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Member of the Special Scientific Committee on Climate Change of the Ministry of Environment and Energy and Member of the National Committee on Combating Desertification of the Ministry of Rural Development & Food. https://users.auth.gr/~zanis/

The Cultural and Development Organization of Public Benefit NEON was founded in 2013 by the collector and entrepreneur Dimitris Daskalopoulos. NEON aspires to bring contemporary culture close to the modern citizen, highlighting the ability of artistic creation to awaken, to move, to motivate. At the same time, it seeks to contribute to the wider effort to upgrade the city and the everyday life of the citizen. To contribute to the restoration of the citizen’s relationship with the functioning and events of his city.

NEON is not limited to a single space. Its seat is the whole city, the wider urban environment. It is a living and active interlocutor with society, institutions and the public.

NEON achieves its objectives through exhibitions, educational programmes, events and debates, sponsorship and scholarship programmes and the creation of a network of international cooperation and exchange. NEON partners with cultural institutions and supports the activity of public and private bodies in order to disseminate contemporary art. NEON seeks to highlight culture as a key driver of progress and development.