Who is entitled to modified weather? Taking their special machine-sculpture, the 'Tornado Diverter’ to the US tornado belt, Swedish artist provocateurs Bigert & Bergström explore humanity’s attempts to control the weather.
Is it time to arm ourselves against the weather?
Screened as part of NZIFF 2013
The Weather War 2012
Väderkriget
Who is entitled to modified weather? Swedish artist provocateurs Bigert & Bergström (The Last Supper) like to toy with technological innovation as an expression of the human obsession with control. The Weather War is their documentary/art film about man’s attempts to control the weather. The duo travel to the US tornado belt with their special machine-sculpture, the ‘Tornado Diverter’. The goal: to stop a tornado. Along the way, we see historical examples of how the science of meteorology developed in symbiosis with military goals and how these visions evolved into modern ideas of geo-engineering. In a larger perspective, the film features the problems faced worldwide due to global climate change. How do we behave to meet those challenges? Do we adapt? Or do we wage war against increasingly aggressive weather phenomena? Already Bangladesh is building protective walls against coming floods. China and Laos shoot rockets into threatening clouds. And in Italy, anti-hail cannons are fired to protect the year’s wine harvest.