Between 1722 and 1769, botanist and meteorologist Gottfried Reyger systematically observed the weather in and around Gdańsk. The scholar, who opened a botanical garden in Orunia Park, was also responsible for creating the first list of local plants according to the Linnaean system. Over 200 years later, Benita Cempel, a fortune-teller, chiromancer and geography teacher, hosted a programme in Sky Orunia TV called From Magic to Science. Both these figures, their passions and occupations, inspired Liliana Zeic.

Climate science and chiromancy – sky reading and palm reading – interweave freely in her work. The artist offers her vision of a climatologist-prophetess, who uses the language of magic to talk about changing weather. But what will happen when a person supposed to talk about scientific facts instead chooses to ignore the intellect and speak straight to the heart? Will we believe a fortune-teller or keep waiting for her academic side to come to the fore? How does the language of magic differ from the language of science? And finally: what code should we use to narrate the world around us to dream our wishes true?

LILIANA ZEIC (she/her) is a visual artist and queer feminist with a PhD in art. She works with video, photography, object and text, creating intermedia and performative projects rooted in artistic research. Zeic was a finalist of Forecast Forum 2017 at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin and won the Views 2019 Deutsche Bank audience award. Her works have been featured in more than 130 collective and solo exhibitions in Poland and internationally, and are kept in public collections (Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Wrocław Contemporary Museum, Arsenał City Gallery in Poznań). Zeic works at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. She lives in Warsaw.