NEWS
Hoodscarf, Take Care Mohair and Recycled Cashmere
Autumn / Winter 2024-25
Hoodscarf, Take Care Mohair
Hoodscarf, Recycled Cashmere
Radiant House - Collective Curtain Workshop
Kunstmuseum Bochum, March - April 2024
Weather Underground explores design strategies that reduce our dependence on petroleum. These can be realized with (recycled) organic materials, post-consumer waste, agricultural by-products and a combination of technology and craft.
According to the International Energy Agency, humanity is facing a “truly global energy crisis”. Prices for natural gas, oil and electricity have reached record highs. At the same time, fossil fuels are becoming increasingly scarce and their extraction is having ever more damaging consequences for the environment. Are there alternatives to generating heat within existing infrastructures such as our own homes without sacrificing warmth and comfort?
With Radiant House, artists Mascha Fehse & Valentina Karga have created an analog heat storage unit in the museum foyer, where both the team and the public can come together to warm up. Together with fashion and product designer Verena Michels, the two artists have invited the public to collectively create a curtain from recycled knitwear in combination with raw sheep's wool during a two-day workshop. This collective curtain has been installed in the Kunstmuseum for the duration of the exhibition as one of the various stations of the Radiant House. Photos: Daniel Sadrowski
Creative Prototyping x Sustainability at UdK
since January 1st, 2024
Creative start-up adviser for designers and artists at Univeristy of Arts Berlin Weather Underground was founded based on material research conducted during MA project Crafting Plastics! (University of Arts Berlin, 2015). Investigations on local supply chain mangement and bio waste cycles were intensified during the Creative Prototyping x Sustainability Fellowship at UdK (2019). The MVP was launched in 2021 supported by an emerging network of enthusiasts for plant based, ephemeral Fashion. This year I started consulting artistic start-up teams at UdK. HOODSCARF COMEBACKPreview: Autumn / Winter, 2024
Hoodscarf, cotton + cashmere spring edition, was quickly sold out and due to popular demand the hand knitted accessory is coming back soon, this time with winter yarns made of cashmere respectively mohair. Email for requests: info@weatherunderground.de
Photo: Viven La Fleur by Sophie Bogdan
ALDINETBAG COMING SOON
Release in September 2024
Photo with Lesely S. FACULTY SHOP October 1st, 2023 - March, 2024 limited stock
In light of inflation and the onset of fall, here is a limited discounted CAPEBAG offer for students and educators.
CAPEBAG at taz Shop
Capebag 2-tone, white top has been listed at taz Shop online - and it is for sale at their store in Friedrichstr. 21 in 10969 Berlin-Kreuzberg.
For Weather Underground, an independent label with locally produced, innovative fashion, it is a great asset to be represented by like-minded institutions, especially when they produce relevant green-left journalism like cooperative taz. So please shop their store and check out their sustainable product selection.
XXXMas Bazaar
of migrating stories
by Arts of the Working ClassSunday, Dec 11, 2022. Studio 5, also called Tone 5, on the premises of BUFA Oberlandstraße 26-35, 12099 Berlin.
BEYOND WASTE
System Update Available (?)
by designtransfer
Verena Michels, Founder @ Weather Underground
Both graduated 2015 at UdK Berlin with their collaborative Master thesis Crafting Plastics!. Seven years after their Master presentation at designtransfer, they speak together about their respective professional practices, material design and research approaches. Recently they initiated a representative platform for designers who take a stance against fossil-fuels through design research: Biomaterials in Practice.
GEWERK IN THE GARDEN #2 Sustainability
By gewerkdesign
An exciting evening with interesting presentations and a lively discussion: Dr. Eva-Maria Heinze examined sustainability from the perspective of practical philosophy. With references to the ethics of Philosophers Schweitzer & Meyer-Abich, she drew on the argument that art and culture can be understood as a further area of application of holistic ethics & that a successful life is composed of ethical and creative components.
Verena Michels, founder at Weather Underground, presented her platform Biomaterials in Practice, initiated together with Vlasta Kubušová (cp! studio): a practice-oriented design exhibition focusing on the implementation of new biomaterials, e.g. from fruit waste, algae or mycelium. Culture and cultural production have great potential for sustainable developments. It is crucial that we continue to exchange ideas and try to think things in a new way.
Verena Michels, founder at Weather Underground, presented her platform Biomaterials in Practice, initiated together with Vlasta Kubušová (cp! studio): a practice-oriented design exhibition focusing on the implementation of new biomaterials, e.g. from fruit waste, algae or mycelium. Culture and cultural production have great potential for sustainable developments. It is crucial that we continue to exchange ideas and try to think things in a new way.
Hoodscarf, handknitted in Berlin
Cashmere-cotton accessory, freshly knitted for spring, summer and autumn 2023. A hooded scarf that comes in three colorways: (1) Pistachio (photo), (2) Berlinsky (blue) and (3) Khaki. Available on request and online. Made in Berlin - on request.Sorry We are Trying, Exhibition Tourshirt
Sorry we are trying
Biomaterials in Practice
![Poster series by Šimon Chovan, image credits: PEELSPHERE, crafting plastics studio!, Weather Underground, Radiant Matter, Syntropia]()
Exhibition curated by product designer Vlasta Kubušová (cp! studio, Bratislava) and fashion designer Verena Michels (Weather Underground, Berlin) at Bratislava Design Week 2021
Although there is no pre-cooked solution to solve the waste problem or save humanity, we do believe that design research can have an impact to support systemic change. The exhibition Sorry, we are trying. Biomaterials in Practice investigates themes of sustainable action and brings together organic products, ephemeral materials and functional designs exploring possibilities of new biological production and waste cycles... This is a collaborative initiative of the two studios Weather Underground and cp! studo Visit Website
EXHIBITORS:
Zuzana Gombošová (Malai, Kerala),
Mogu, Inarzo (VA),
Aurelia Noudelman (Amsterdam),
Elissa Brunato (Radiant Matter, London),
Bananatex / QWSTION (Switzerland),
Eugenia Morpurgo and Sophia Guggenberger (Syntropia, Venice and Vienna),
Youyang Song (Peelsphere, Berlin),
Lukas Wegwerth (Berlin),
Verena Michels (Weather Underground, Berlin),
Vlasta Kubušová and Miro Kral (Crafting Plastics studio, Bratislava)
EXPERTS:
Tal Erez (design curator),
Galit Gaon (design curator),
Ivana Maleš (circular economy consultant),
Sven Bergmann (cultural anthropologist)
CURATORS:
Vlasta Kubušová and Verena Michels
CURATORIAL ASSISTANT:
Marlene Stach
This exhibition has been financially suported using public funds provided by Slovak Arts Council.
UDK 2030 FUTURE DAY- Sustainability for Whom?
By UDK 2030: The repetition of sustainability and climate change topics on various panels and exhibitions can lead to either constructive or evasive discussions. The conversation on Panel 1 is an attempt to talk further about these important topics, approaching them from intersectional, critical and practical perspectives.
Participants of table 1: Işıl Eğrikavuk (UdK Berlin), Mandu (Black Earth Collective), Verena Michels (Weather underground Berlin), Andreas Weber (UdK Berlin), Markus Bader (Floating University). Moderator of the table: Dalís Pacheco
OH Window display & webshop launch
Video clip from various footages created by Marlene StachInstallation at OH Studio during Gallery Weekend 2021: Hundreds of Shiny Windows was a collaborative event together with artist Antonia Breme, who designed the window display for Weather Underground’s webshop launch.
Climate & Culture Weekend on Lobeblock’s rooftop
by Plan A+Popcorn video by Marlene Stach
WEATHER UNDERGROUND was invited to participate at Climate and Culture Weekend hosted by Plan A+ on the terraces of Lobe Block in Berlin-Wedding. Independent thinkers, makers and creators from the fields of design, architecture, art and food showcased and sold their future-proof products.
We have enjoyed interesting questions and conversations about biodegradable CAPEBAG and its material and production made in Germany. The bioplastic manudactured for Weather Underground products is based on cornstarch, and so we served them with some Popcorn! On this occasion, CAPEBAG was shown with an installation by designer Andries de Lange.
Almstadtstraße 48-50 10119 Berlin
CAPEBAG now at Pro qm
Keep your books and yourselves dry. Today’s forecast for Berlin Mitte: 20 degrees and rain. Tomorrow, 54% humidity with increasing chance of rain showers until this Friday!You can get CAPEBAG and logo repair patches together with your favorite books at @proqm 📚
Capebag is a 100% biodegradable raincape with a tube collar that folds into a bag with handles.
Window Display and Webshop Launch
Marc Brandenburg wears CAPEBAG, monochrome black, at OH Studio Window Display Launch
We have recently launched a Webshop with a Window Display and a rainy and tropical video projection by Antonia Breme at OH Studio. Currently looking into physical locations and events to sell CAPEBAG on the road. Please contact us for inquiries / send an email to info@weatherunderground.de
Window Display and Webshop Launch
Final Weekend OH Studio Pohlstraße 75, 10785 Berlin
This is the last weekend with the Window display by Antonia Breme for Weather Underground at OH Studio. Please visit us on our main visitors day, this Saturday, May 15 from 2pm-8pm, or alternatively pass by on Sunday, 16 May 2pm-5pm. Thanks to everyone who visited us during the past two weekends!
Window Display and Webshop Launch
Friday, 30 April 2021 OH StudioPohlstraße 75, 10785 Berlin
Plant sequence by Antonia Breme
Designer Verena Michels and artist Antonia Breme combine the best of their respective practices: the artist's tactile displays and the designer’s plant-based product CAPEBAG question the boundaries of art and commerce, attraction and transience and challenge the perception of the virtual and the analog. The window sheds light on the importance of window displays in urban space. It is both a framework and an ambassador for the digitalisation (of retail) driven by lockdowns: Weather Underground’s Webshop is announced within this format ...
Antonia Breme is currently researching intersections between art installation and window display within the context of the Creative Prototyping stipend offered by the Universität der Künste Berlin (UDK).
Verena Michels is a member of OH Studio in Pohlstraße. Her design label Weather Underground was presented in the framework of Pop-Hub during Berlin Art Week 2019. She is now launching her webshop.
Opening days during Gallery Weekend 2021:
Friday, 30 April 2021 from 4pm-8pm
Saturday, 1 May from 12pm-8pm
Sunday, 2 May from 12pm-8pm
Opening hours during the weekend of May 8 / May 9:
Saturday, May 15 from 12pm-8pm
Sunday, May 16 from 12-8pm
Opening hours during the weekend of May 15 / May 16:
Saturday, May 15 from 2pm-8pm
Sunday, May 16 from 2-8pm
READ EXHIBITION TEXT