WHO OWNS THE WEATHER? Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan Public art project, Green Line / Trenčín 2026 – European Capital of Culture
Standing on the riverbank next to Váh river, Who Owns the Weather? is a large open steel structure resembling a meteorological antenna — almost like an instrument, but mostly an object as a question. Created by artists Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan, the work invites visitors to step beneath it and encounter a simple but quite mysterious phrase: Who owns the weather? — spelled out in metal letters and cast again as shadows on the ground below by sunlight.
The question is deliberately left open. It is up to the viewer to think, to respond. Is it pointing towards climate change? — overwhelmingly driven by human activity — but not shared with equal responsibility? The work might draw attention to fossil fuel corporations, wealthy nations, and business and political lobbyists that disproportionately drive the crisis while evading accountability. Or should we turn a critical eye toward military industries and states that have already experimented with manipulating local weather patterns for strategic advantage? Ultimately, the work might point towards emerging geoengineering technologies increasingly proposed as last-resort responses to the climate emergency.
And yet the answer to the question does not need to end in despair. People, when politically mobilized, carry real power to reshape environmental futures. And in the long term, the planet itself, perhaps, is the rightful owner of its own weather.
