Shuang Li’s Alliance begins with storm chasing, the deliberate pursuit of tornadoes, hurricanes and other extreme weather.
At Kunsthalle Basel, where the exhibition runs until 13 September 2026, that pursuit expands into an immersive environment of video, sound and architecture. Roads, weather forecasts and meteorological imagery appear within a visual world that connects physical storms to the less visible systems shaping contemporary digital life.
The comparison works because both kinds of systems are difficult to see as a whole.
A storm can be tracked on a screen, measured and predicted, yet standing inside one is completely different from reading its data.
Digital infrastructures behave similarly. Algorithms, networks and platforms surround daily life while most of their operations remain invisible.
What I like here is that weather is not reduced to a metaphor pasted onto technology. Both involve prediction, control and a point where prediction fails.
The storm chaser moves toward instability in order to observe it.
Most technology is designed to do the opposite. It promises to remove uncertainty.
Li seems interested in the moment when that promise begins to break down.
https://kunsthallebasel.ch/de/exhibitions/shuang-li
#ShuangLi #VideoInstallation #DigitalCulture #ContemporaryArt
