李爽 于欧洲机构的首次个展 “Alliance” 于 2026 年 6 月 12 日在巴塞尔艺术馆（Kunsthalle Basel）拉开帷幕。温度骤然下降，光线由明转暗，空气也变得愈发凝重，仿佛获得了重量。一场龙卷风似乎正在巴塞尔艺术馆的展厅中悄然酝酿。在展览 “Alliance” 中，李爽将目光投向对风暴的追寻⸺这里的 “风暴” 不仅指向具体而真实的自然现象，更重要的是，作为一种隐喻，它揭示了那些塑造并渗透我们日常生活的高度媒介化现实与数字力量。
展览以李爽迄今为止最具野心的视频装置作品的首次呈现为核心。影片围绕三位主要角色展开，她们均由同一位 “演员” 饰演⸺一个性爱娃娃。在摄制团队的陪伴下，她们投身于 “追风暴”（storm chasing）之中，主动追逐龙卷风等极端天气现象。影片构建于松散的剧本结构之上，叙事随着现实时间中生发的一系列不期而遇徐徐展开。
这段追寻之旅沿着一系列空间与氛围的递进推进。五个展厅分别对应旅程中的不同篇章：从日常的观察与追逐的开启，到不断积聚的紧张与强度，最终抵达风暴之眼的高潮时刻。
Shuang Li’s first institutional solo exhibition in Europe, “Alliance,” opened at Kunsthalle Basel on 12 June, 2026. The temperature drops rapidly, light shifts from bright to dark, and the air grows heavy, as if it had gained weight. A tornado seems to be building in the exhibition spaces of Kunsthalle Basel. In Alliance, Shuang Li turns to the search for storms not only as literal and physical natural phenomena but, more importantly, as metaphors for the highly mediated realities and digital forces that shape and permeate our everyday lives.
The exhibition centers on the premiere of Li's most ambitious video installation to date. The film follows three main characters, all portrayed by the same “actress”: a sex doll. Accompanied by a film crew, they devote themselves to “storm chasing”—the deliberate pursuit of severe weather events such as tornadoes. Loosely scripted, the film unfolds through a series of unexpected encounters that emerge in real time.
This search develops through a sequence of spatial and atmospheric stages. Each of the five exhibition spaces corresponds to a progression on the journey, ranging from everyday observation and the onset of the chase, building in intensity, to the climax in the eye of the storm itself.
人们追逐风暴的原因各不相同：或是出于对气象学的迷恋，或是出于对自然壮丽力量的敬畏，抑或仅仅是为了体验肾上腺素飙升的刺激。一次典型的 “追风暴” 往往意味着在开阔的地景中长时间驱车前行，虽有天气预报的指引，却始终伴随着不确定感。李爽将这种持续向前的运动轨迹延伸至展览空间之中。一个个展厅铺陈出一条蜿蜒向前的道路，穿行于被强化、近乎曝光过度的景观之间，途经宛如巨幅路边广告牌般呈现的电影剧照与气象图。
在这里，对龙卷风的追寻映照出一种以持续流动为特征的当下现实。龙卷风、直播、媒介系统与数字基础设施共同构成了某种力量：它们既仿佛远在天边，又以令人不安的方式近在咫尺，既真实可感却又难以捉摸，始终处于运动之中，也从未真正处于人们的掌控之下。
步入 “Alliance”，意味着踏上一段旅程：在不稳定的地面之上，一种持续运动的状态穿越展厅空间徐徐展开。置身于碎片化的景观、广告牌、闪烁的灯光与不断变化的天气图之间，运动本身成为唯一的定位方式。李爽将整场展览构筑为一场持续进行的、试图捕捉龙卷风的尝试。
对李爽而言，极端风暴的意象既是具体的气象事件，也是一则关于当代媒介环境及其信息持续流转的隐喻。如同龙卷风形成于广袤而平坦的地景之上，今日的媒介基础设施同样建立在一种 “抹平” 的条件之上：一切事物看似同样触手可及、即时呈现，直至人们突然被卷入由注意力、数据与痴迷构成的漩涡之中。这一隐喻同样指向信息的流通机制⸺过去不断被重新搅动，往昔扬起的尘埃并未随着时间流逝而沉降，仿佛永恒地被困于一场龙卷风循环之中。贯穿整个展览，李爽将这种在水平面与垂直吸力、漂移与压缩之间不断摆荡的状态，转化为螺旋式的形态与沉浸式的空间情境。
People chase storms for many reasons: a fascination with meteorology, a sense of awe at the majestic power of nature, or simply the thrill of an adrenaline rush. Much of a typical storm-chasing day involves long drives across open landscapes, guided by forecasts, yet marked by a constant sense of uncertainty. Li extends this forward-moving trajectory into the exhibition space itself. The rooms become the foundation of a road that winds through heightened, almost overexposed landscapes, passing by film stills and a meteorological map displayed like oversized roadside billboards.
Here, the search for tornadoes reflects a present characterized by constant circulation. Tornadoes, livestreams, media systems, and digital infrastructures act as forces that are simultaneously distant and menacingly close, physically palpable yet elusive, always in motion and never fully controllable.
Entering Alliance means embarking a journey: a state of motion on unstable ground unfolding across the exhibition spaces. Amidst fragmented landscapes, billboards, flickering lights, and shifting weather maps, movement itself becomes the only form of orientation. Shuang Li stages the exhibition as an ongoing attempt to catch a tornado.
The image of the extreme storm functions for Li both as a concrete meteorological event and as a metaphor for contemporary media environments and their incessant circulation of information. Much like tornadoes forming over flat landscapes, today’s media infrastructures operate via conditions of leveling. Everything appears equally accessible and immediate until one is suddenly drawn into a maelstrom of attention, data, and obsession. The metaphor also speaks to the circulation of information—the past constantly being stirred up; the dust of the past never settles as time passes, as if trapped in a tornado loop for an eternity. Throughout the exhibition, Li translates this oscillation between horizontal plane and vertical suction, drift and compression, into spiraling forms and immersive spatial situations.
《开启一切的正午时分》（2026）标志着这场远征的启程。十三台电视屏幕之上，影像在无休止的循环中不断展开。景观以狭窄的碎片形式出现，如同从疾驰的车内向窗外匆匆瞥见的片段；它们还未来得及被看清，便已在数字放大的过程中逐渐瓦解。这件作品如同一组公路电影中的 B-roll（补充镜头），由充满氛围的地景镜头、断续浮现的交谈声，以及沿途掠过的环境共同构成。整个装置嵌入一组宛如乡村道路截面的金属结构之中。这些材料仿佛从地面本身被掀起，逐渐失去稳定性，在空间中蜿蜒延展，仿佛再也无法承受运动所带来的力量与速度。
正是在追逐风暴的过程中，图像变得愈发不稳定。广告牌般的作品《自由开火》、《从我眼中偷走》与《插曲》（均创作于 2026 年）将视频静帧、私人档案与气象图层层叠置于不断变化的光栅印刷之中。图像不再拥有固定的开端与终点，而是在持续错位的状态中不断流转。地景消融为手势，闪烁的灯光化作手写的笔记，天气图则转变为身体上的瘀痕。《插曲》铺展于地面，其各个部分宛如脱落的像素。以气象风羽为原型塑造的雕塑静置其上⸺那些被树脂封存的日常物件，犹如风暴来临前凝结于光滑表面的水滴。
The Middle of the Day That Starts It All (2026) marks the beginning of the expedition. Across thirteen TV screens, images unfold in relentless loops. Landscapes appear as narrow fragments glimpsed from a moving vehicle, digitally amplified to the point where they begin to dissolve before they can fully stabilize. The work functions like a sequence of B-roll footage from a road movie—comprising atmospheric shots of landscapes, the sound of conversation fragments, and passing environments. The installation is embedded in an architecture of metal structures that resemble a section of a rural roadway. Lifted up from the ground itself and gradually losing stability, the material winds through the space as though it can no longer withstand the force and velocity of the movement.
It is in the pursuit of the storm that images become increasingly unstable. The billboard-like works Fire at Will, Stolen from My Eyes, and Interlude (all 2026) layer video stills, private archives, and meteorological maps into shifting lenticular prints. Images no longer possess a fixed beginning or end; they circulate in a state of continual displacement. Landscapes dissolve into gestures, flickering lights into handwritten notes, weather maps into bruises on a body. Interlude spreads across the floor, its individual parts like detached pixels. Sculptures modeled on meteorological wind barbs have settled upon them—everyday objects preserved in resin, like condensation droplets gathering on smooth surfaces before the storm.
李爽并不将数字技术视为孤立存在的工具或对象，而是将其理解为渗透于日常生活之中的力量。在线平台、基础设施与数据流塑造着沟通、流动性、亲密性与社会关系；它们决定了身份如何在无尽的流转之中形成，也决定了人们在何种规则之下仍有可能建立连接。《也带着一箱徒劳》（2024）将这些条件转译至一种更私密的维度，展览的节奏也在此短暂放缓。持续的运动让位于片刻的停驻。经由摩斯密码编码的灯光照亮整个空间，将艺术家写给母亲的一封信转译为一种被编码的亲密。李爽的声音回荡于展厅之中，仿佛缓缓将沉寂已久的漩涡重新带回流转之中。
Li approaches digital technologies not as isolated tools or objects but as forces permeating everyday life. Online platforms, infrastructures, and data streams shape communication, mobility, intimacy, and social relationships. They determine how identities form in a state of endless circulation and dictate the rules under which it is still possible to forge connections. With a Trunk of Ammunition Too (2024) translates these conditions into an intimate register, and the dynamics of the exhibition briefly decelerate. Movement yields to a temporary suspension. Morse-code lights illuminate the space, translating a letter the artist wrote to her mother into coded intimacy. Li’s voice remains audible throughout the room, as though slowly drawing the dormant vortex back into circulation.
步入最后一个展厅，随着盘旋的结构腾空而起，龙卷风的力量也随之攀升，仿佛风本身获得了钢铁的物质形态。《Alliance (Heart Loop)》(2026) 将观众瞬间卷入风暴的力量之中。这件影像作品融合了纪录片、DIY 公路电影与直播的美学，将对龙卷风的追寻鲜活地呈现出来。影片跟随多个人物的追风暴旅程。道路、加油站、工业建筑与开阔的原野同时显得熟悉而陌生。随着物理环境与数字环境之间的区分逐渐瓦解，两者的边界也变得愈发模糊。影片中的性爱娃娃主角们怀抱着共同的渴望：进入龙卷风的内部，并期待在抵达另一端时获得转变。她们曾经是人类，却在数字与算法力量所掀起的风暴中失去了自身的主体性。她们渴望重新夺回最初被风带走之物，而这一渴望也使这场追逐成为一次最后的尝试⸺一次重新争取主体性的尝试。
Entering the final space, the tornado's force rises as swirling structures soar, as if the wind itself had taken on the materiality of steel. Alliance (Heart Loop) (2026) offers immediate immersion in the storm’s power. Blending the aesthetics of a documentary, a DIY road-trip movie, and a livestream, the video work brings the search for a tornado to life. The film follows multiple figures on their individual storm-chasing journey. Roads, gas stations, industrial buildings, and open fields appear simultaneously familiar and alien. The gradual collapse of the distinction between physical and digital environments blurs the boundary between the two. The sex doll protagonists are driven by a shared desire to enter the tornado itself, hoping to emerge transformed on the other side. Once human, but having lost agency in the storms of digital and algorithmic forces—their desire to reclaim what was taken away by the wind in the first place makes this their final attempt to reclaim agency.
正是在这部影片之中，龙卷风得以被辨识为一个扁平化媒介景观的症候：在那里，一切似乎都随时可得、同时在场。决策如同数据流一般变得不稳定，而旋涡般的信息流持续组织着我们的感知。那些看似出于个体意志的选择，实际上早已在这些不断流转的系统之中被塑造。龙卷风意味着向风暴本身投降，向其牵引力投降，也向它所席卷而去的一切投降；它意味着一种将自我交付其中的渴望，并或许正是通过这种失去，得以继续存在。
It is in the film that the tornado becomes legible as a symptom of a flattened media landscape in which everything is continuously available all at once. Decisions become unstable as data streams, and swirling information flows continuously organize perception. What appears to be an individual choice is already shaped within these circulating systems. The tornado stands for surrender to the storm, to its pull, and to everything it sweeps away, for the desire to lose oneself within it and perhaps, precisely through this loss, to continue to exist.