Tornado, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 13 – 23 February 2026
“For his first intervention at the Palais de Tokyo, Tadashi Kawamata presents two site-responsive, monumental works. In keeping with his interventions on public and private buildings since the 1980s, first in Japan and then worldwide, Kawamata claims both the exterior and interior spaces of the Palais de Tokyo, allowing his work to engage with the public sphere and the daily flow of the building.
Inside the Palais de Tokyo, Tornado towers over the viewer from the top of the staircase, spanning approximately 20 metres in diameter. Constructed from various types of recycled wood, reclaimed from the artist’s previous projects, this immense structure reveals an internal dynamism created by the skilful, irregular arrangement of wooden planks, suggesting movement.
Expanding from the cocoon-like structure of the nest, this new declination of Kawamata’s research unfolds as a release of energy into a powerful representation of swirling force, that echoes the violence of natural disasters amplified by the climate crisis. Its dramatic suspension from the ceiling further amplifies its imposing presence, placing the viewer directly in the eye of a cyclone.
Yet, perhaps, this too is a nest, offering shelter in the midst of the storm, caught in that fleeting instant in-between being and no longer.”
Alice Montanini
Documentation of the installation process
