In her article, Walls Fall Down: Berlin's Contemporary Art Institutions, the Berlin based curator and writer, Astrid Mania, states: "Among the many Berlin-based initiatives offering space for debate and reflection on contemporary art and its institutions, UNWETTER is perhaps the most changeable and unpredictable, functioning without a permanent space or platform as an umbrella organization for relatively unstructured, open art events. UNWETTER (the German word for "bad weather" which translates literally as "non-weather"–a notion originating in Sarat Maharaj's lectures during his guest professorship at Berlin's Humboldt University in 2001/2002–is the collective moniker of a group of international artists, curators, theoreticians and activists.

Initiated in Berlin, the collective stages temporary events–so-called discursive picnics–with open invitations to participate in an exchange of ideas and a discussion on the parameters of contemporary art. The picnics are often organized within the framework of larger, temporary exhibitions, such as biennials. They either take place within the urban environment–often without the approval of local authorities–or on the premises of an art institution. In the latter case, the rules and laws of the institutions in question–in particular access restrictions such as entrance fees or prohibitions on the introduction and consumption of food and drink–are temporarily suspended. During the course of the picnics, the rigid designations of curator, artist, audience, producer and consumer are broken down. In practice, the activities of UNWETTER seem to be most effective within the confines of major institutions where they highlight and infringe the unwritten rules that quietly govern the behavior of museum visitors, keeping them passive and receptive."

Excerpt from "Institutional Critique and After" ed. John C. Welchman [Second SoCCAS Symposium] (Zurich: JRP|Ringier, 2006)
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