Tornado

“It took me years to figure out what I was looking for. At the end, I realised I was looking for order within disorder. Paradoxically, it takes a lot of order to create a tornado." Francis Alÿs in The New York Times, 2011.

Francis Alÿs spent ten years chasing tornadoes in Milpa Alta, a region near Mexico City that is particularly prone to them. Using a handheld camera, he filmed himself running in the eye of the twister, headlong into the dust and wind. The resulting footage was turned into a 39-minute-long video montage in which rhythm takes precedence over any form of narrative structure.

Tornado reflects on our search for the utopian and celebrates our - sometimes extraordinary - tenacity. The works of Francis Alÿs often have an implicit political dimension. The sandstorm could suggest the collapse of the system. The repetitive running through the gales might represent the artist’s futile attempts at warding off turmoil and chaos. But inside the heart of the tornado, out of breath and blinded by dust, he does manage to find a moment of peace. A moment of hope and potential, too.