* 1959 in Antwerp, Belgium. Lives and works in Mexico City
Belgian artist
Known for: Poetic and allegorical works which address political and social realities
Francis Alÿs's personal, ambulatory explorations of cities form the basis of his practice, through which he compiles extensive and varied documentation that reflects his ideas and process. His art is centered around observations of, and engagements with, everyday life. Alÿs has produced a complex and multifaceted body of work that includes public actions, videos, paintings, performances, installations, drawings, and photography. The artist himself has described his work as "a sort of discursive argument composed of episodes, metaphors, or parables." Across these different media, Alÿs presents his distinct poetic and imaginative sensibility in the context of his anthropological and political concerns. His actions have included the following: traveling the longest possible route between locations in Mexico and the United States, in order to highlight the increasing number of obstacles imposed along the border; pushing a melting block of ice through city streets; commissioning sign painters to copy his paintings; filming his efforts to enter the center of a tornado; carrying a leaking can of paint along the contested Israeli-Palestinian border; and equipping hundreds of volunteers to move a colossal sand dune ten centimeters.
Exhibited works
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Paradox of Praxis 1 (Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing), 1997. 2nd | A | This piece documents an action performed on the streets of Mexico City in 1997. The video (4:59 min) depicts a simple and seemingly pointless endeavor – Alÿs pushing a large block of ice through the city streets until it melts away to nothing – and yet in so doing the act reclaims something of itself. The apparently futile gesture becomes paradoxical when it becomes the subject of its own film, itself a work of art: nothing to something. | |
Links
Francisalys.com | David Zwirner Gallery | Peter Kilchmann Gallery | Further informations 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
Credits
All reproductions © Francis Alÿs