Together with the Canadian storm chaser and meteorologist Mark Robinson, Bigert & Bergström travelled to the Midwest in the US, to film and document the increasingly hostile weather patterns that are developing today. The exhibition “The Storm” centers on Bigert & Bergström’s attempt to intercept a tornado using a device called the “Tornado Diverter”.
In the middle of the gallery, placed on a custom built trailer, the Tornado Diverter is flanked by a series of photomontages printed on layered glass. The photo montages document the aftermath of the destructive tornado, that wiped out parts of Joplin, USA, May 22nd, 2011.
Ever since their first large-scale performance/installation “Biosphere III”, in 1990, Bigert & Bergström has been obsessed with the climate and its extremes. The weather—both a trivial theme for petty conversation and a life threatening natural force—is central in their art. And they use it to pinpoint our currently exposed position living in a slowly heating lab-maze.
A call to arms and prelude to coming visionary geo engineering performances, Bigert & Bergström's exhibition The Storm also plays a part in the duo's new film, “The Weather War”. The film tracks the history and contemporary struggle, between man and man-made climate, as we approach the tipping point.
The Storm was the first in a series of exhibitions on the theme on how climate changes and extreme weathers affect humans and our environment, the others are called “The Drought”, The Freeze, The Flood and The Light.