THE DAY THE CLOUDS VANISHED
Video Installation
2025
The Day the Clouds Vanished is a video work displayed on Pragsattel’s Mediaboard in Stuttgart, consisting of edited archival footage of clouds moving across the city’s sky-clouds created by fog machines used for camouflage during the Second World War. Tracing the history of Stuttgart’s use of fogging machines and their connection to environmental catastrophe, the digital artwork reflects on contemporary war strategies, including air pollution and starvation. The video, which shows machine-generated clouds drifting through the Stuttgart sky, seeks to defamiliarize the common act of skygazing by partially revealing elements of the city behind fog. In contrast to the colorful advertisements typically shown on Mediaboards, the black-and-white archival footage presents a contemporary digital artwork that evokes poetic images, speaking to the cruelty embedded in both historical and modern phenomena.
Archival footage research: Marta Popowska
Text editing: Maria Petrides
Zine Design: YOOOP Studio
CURRENT – ART AND URBAN SPACE STUTTGART
Images
© Stadtarchiv Stuttgart / Österreichische Nationalbibliothek / Mercedes-Benz Classic