A performance by Horizon Factory (Erin Hill and Nina Vroemen)
Thursday July 9th, 6 pm
In case of heavy rain, the performance will be postponed on Friday July 10th, at the same time. Participants will be noticed by email.
As part of the exhibition Vent bleu, come learn to interpret the clouds, the sky and the wind in an immersive performance of The Sisters of the Celestial Order of Nephology, a fictional community of two blue-clad nuns led by Horizon Factory (Erin Hill and Nina Vroemen).
Inspired by experimental composer Pauline Oliveros (1932–2016) and her practices of sound meditation and deep listening, the concept of “deep gazing” developed by the Sisters combines the observation and identification of clouds with the prediction of the future, blending environment and spirituality to explore the weather as a relational system, offering tools to cultivate intimate and personal connections with the climate, the community, and places. While Pauline Oliveros asks, “What does it mean to listen?”, the Sisters ask what it means to look.
Free.
Duration of approximately 45 minutes.
Mandatory reservation: the link will be available soon.
The Sisters invite you to stay after the performance for refreshments and sharing your experiences of celestial observation
Participants must bring their own smartphone or audio player and headphones to take part in the workshop. The audio experience is available in French and English. A link to download the audio file will be provided upon reservation.
The Sisters of the Celestial Order of Nephology is an interdisciplinary performance project by Horizon Factory (Erin Hill and Nina Vroemen). Formed in 2019 during a dance residency at Studio 303 (Montreal), the project adopts the form of a fictive pseudo-religious order: two blue-cloaked atmospheric nuns devoted to the study of clouds.
The Sisters work with the practices of Deep Gazing and Scrying. Deep Gazing invites attention to the sky as a means of attuning to environment, place, and weather, while Scrying approaches clouds as sites of meaning beyond the conventions of forecasting. Working across performance, installation, workshops, and writing, the project explores weather as a relational system connecting climate, community, and place. In 2024, the Sisters published Deep Gazing, a book of embodied scores and meteorological texts.
The Sisters of the Celestial Order of Nephology have presented work at RURART (Cookshire-Eaton, QC, 2020/2024), Fonderie Darling (Montreal, 2020), Third Space (New Brunswick, 2021), Artscape Gibraltar (Toronto, 2022), CCOV (Montreal, 2022), SummerWorks (Toronto, 2022), Eastern Bloc (Montreal, 2023/2025), Performing Arts Forum (France, 2023), PIQUE (Ottawa, 2024), and Centre PHI (Montreal, 2025), with upcoming presentations at Agrégat + l’Espace (2025) and NERMA (Australia, 2026).
Most recently, their work appears on the cover of Espace: Art actuel no. 142, Prophecies, with a commissioned text by Fanny Curtat (January 2026). In April 2026, the Sisters will participate in a Plural Contemporary Art Fair roundtable on Prophecies.
