Single-channel video projection; color, 5.1 surround sound
Throughout his practice, Belgian-born Francis Alÿs directs his poetic and imaginative sensibility toward anthropological and geopolitical concerns. His multifaceted works are centered around observations of, and engagements with, everyday life, which the artist himself has described as ‘a sort of discursive argument composed of episodes, metaphors, or parables.’ Inspired by the dusty, burnt fields in southern Mexico, Alÿs filmed for 10 years the reoccurring tornados that ravage the land at the end of the dry season. With a handheld camera, he attempts to enter the vortex and capture the stark tension between violent, chaotic movement and unsettling quietness. Tornado allegedly has its roots in an amusing misunderstanding where Alÿs overheard his friends talking about Cervantes’s hero Don Quixote fighting ‘windmills’ (in Spanish, molinos de viento). Alÿs thought they were talking about ‘tornados’ (remolinos de viento), and his quest to enter the eye of the storm can be compared to Quixote’s often foolish pursuit of ideals in Cervantes’s novel.
