Francis Alÿs
Encyclopedia
Francis Alÿs is a Belgian artist. His work emerges in the interdisciplinary space of art, architecture, and social practice. After leaving behind his formal training as an architect and relocated to Mexico City, he has created a diverse body of artwork that explores urbanity, spatial justice, and land-based poetics. Employing a broad range of media from painting to performance, his works examine the tension between politics and poetics, individual action and impotence. Alÿs commonly enacts paseos—walks that resist the subjection of common space. Alys reconfigures time to the speed of a stroll, making reference to the figure of the flâneur
, originating from the work of Charles Baudelaire
and developed by Walter Benjamin
. Cyclical repetition and return also inform the character of Alÿs’ movements and mythology—Alÿs contrasts geological and technological time through land-based and social practice that examine individual memory and collective mythology. Alÿs frequently engages rumor as a central theme in his practice, disseminating ephemeral, practice-based works through word-of-mouth and storytelling.
(1978–83) and engineering at the Istituto di Architettura
in Venice (1983–6) before moving to Mexico City
in 1986 where he arrived as part of a French assistance program after an earthquake. He soon started practicing as a visual artist. His work encompasses many media often involving the participation and presence of the artist. These performed events are documented in video, photographs, writing, painting, and animation.
In 2005 the National Portrait Gallery hosted The Nightwatch, an installation by Alÿs in collaboration with Artangel
, in which a wild fox called Bandit was set free in the Gallery with his movements recorded by surveillance cameras.
In his best-known work, When Faith Moves Mountains (2002), Alÿs recruited 500 volunteers in Ventanilla District outside of Lima
, Peru
. Each person moved a shovel full of sand one step at a time from one side of a dune to the other, and together they moved the entire geographical location of the dune by a few inches. Art critic
Jean Fisher writes that "the radical event of art precipitates a crisis of meaning or, rather, it exposes the void of meaning at the core of a given social situation, which is its truth." The Rehearsal (1999), the first part of an as yet unfinished three-part video piece shot in Tijuana, consists of a static long shot of a green VW Beetle driving up the slope of a dirt road in a shantytown while the viewer hears musicians rehearsing a song. Every time they stop, the car rolls backwards down the hill, as if running out of petrol, but when the music starts up again, the car starts driving up the hill once more.
At Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art
in Berlin, Alÿs collaborated with Alejandro González Iñárritu
on an installation entitled Amores Perros - El Ensayo (Amores Perros - The Rehearsal, 2002). The scenes shown on numerous monitors and projections were not from the film itself but from hours and hours of crude research video, casting clips, acting rehearsals and discarded rushes.
The paintings in the series Le Temps du sommeil were begun in 1996 and often worked on at night. They feature visionary dreamlike scenes involving tiny suited men and women acting out strange rituals reminiscent of children's games and gymnastic experiments.
For nearly twenty years the Alÿs has been collecting images of Saint Fabiola
, a fourth century patrician Roman woman who, despite divorce and remarriage, later did such fervent penance that she was welcomed back to the faith and, after her death, sainted. For years she fell into oblivion, but in the nineteenth century returned to popularity as the protagonist of a novel
named after her. Alÿs acquired his Fabiola portraits, mostly the work of amateurs, from thrift shops, flea markets and antiques stores primarily in Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Holland, and Germany. All the works have been left in their original state. The artists, dates and places of origin are largely unknown. Fabiola is always depicted in profile with her head covered in a rich red veil. Alÿs has been presenting his collection since 1994. He looks for a special location for each Fabiola exhibition, devising a new constellation for the portraits, which now number over 350. In 1997, 60 of his Fabiolas were exhibited at London's Whitechapel Art Gallery.
, London (2010), The AiM Biennale (Arts in Marrakech International Biennale)
, The Renaissance Society
, Chicago (2008), the Hammer Museum
, Los Angeles (2007), Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany, MALBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Lima - Perú ; Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg; Musée d'Art Contemporain, Avignon, France (2004); Centro nazionale per le arti contemporanee, Rome, Italy [traveled to Kunsthaus Zürich
, Zürich, and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
, Madrid] (all 2003); and Museum of Modern Art
, New York, NY (2002, 2011); and Or Gallery
, Vancouver, Canada (1998). His traveling show of portraits of the Saint Fabiola has traveled to London, New York,Perú and LAMCA. Alÿs participated in the Venice Biennial in 1999, 2001 and 2007, and the Carnegie International
in 2004.
Alÿs is represented by David Zwirner
in New York and Galerie Peter Kilchmann in Zurich.
Flâneur
The term flâneur comes from the French masculine noun flâneur—which has the basic meanings of "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", "loafer"—which itself comes from the French verb flâner, which means "to stroll". Charles Baudelaire developed a derived meaning of flâneur—that of "a person who walks...
, originating from the work of Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
and developed by Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish intellectual, who functioned variously as a literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist...
. Cyclical repetition and return also inform the character of Alÿs’ movements and mythology—Alÿs contrasts geological and technological time through land-based and social practice that examine individual memory and collective mythology. Alÿs frequently engages rumor as a central theme in his practice, disseminating ephemeral, practice-based works through word-of-mouth and storytelling.
Work
Alÿs studied architectural history at the Institute of Architecture in TournaiTournai
Tournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut....
(1978–83) and engineering at the Istituto di Architettura
University Iuav of Venice
Iuav University of Venice is a university located in Venice, northern Italy. It was founded in 1926 and is organized in 3 faculties....
in Venice (1983–6) before moving to Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
in 1986 where he arrived as part of a French assistance program after an earthquake. He soon started practicing as a visual artist. His work encompasses many media often involving the participation and presence of the artist. These performed events are documented in video, photographs, writing, painting, and animation.
Performance
Many of his works involve intense observation and recording of the social, cultural and economic conditions of particular places, usually conceived during walks through urban areas. Citing walking as the centre of his practice, for his first performance The Collector (1991), he dragged a small magnetic toy dog on wheels through Mexico City so as to attract debris to it. In Fairy Tales (1995), he takes a walk after unravelling the sweater he has on, leaving an ever-lengthening, blue-thread trail in his wake. Also in 1995, Alÿs realised an action in São Paulo called The Leak in which he walked from a gallery, around the city, and back into the gallery trailing a dribbled line from an open can of blue paint. This action was reprised in 2004 when Alÿs walked along the armistice border in Jerusalem, known as 'the green line', carrying a can filled with green paint. The bottom of the can was perforated with a small hole, so the paint dripped out as a continuous squiggly line on the ground as he walked. The work Paradox of Praxis 1 (Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing) documents an action performed on the streets of Mexico City in 1997. The film depicts a simple and seemingly pointless endeavour - a large block of ice being pushed through the city streets for 9 hours until it melts away to nothing.In 2005 the National Portrait Gallery hosted The Nightwatch, an installation by Alÿs in collaboration with Artangel
Artangel
Artangel is a London-based arts organisation founded in 1985 by Roger Took. Directed since 1991 by James Lingwood and Michael Morris, it has commissioned and produced a string of notable site-specific works, plus several projects for TV, film, radio and the web...
, in which a wild fox called Bandit was set free in the Gallery with his movements recorded by surveillance cameras.
In his best-known work, When Faith Moves Mountains (2002), Alÿs recruited 500 volunteers in Ventanilla District outside of Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
. Each person moved a shovel full of sand one step at a time from one side of a dune to the other, and together they moved the entire geographical location of the dune by a few inches. Art critic
Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
Jean Fisher writes that "the radical event of art precipitates a crisis of meaning or, rather, it exposes the void of meaning at the core of a given social situation, which is its truth." The Rehearsal (1999), the first part of an as yet unfinished three-part video piece shot in Tijuana, consists of a static long shot of a green VW Beetle driving up the slope of a dirt road in a shantytown while the viewer hears musicians rehearsing a song. Every time they stop, the car rolls backwards down the hill, as if running out of petrol, but when the music starts up again, the car starts driving up the hill once more.
At Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art
Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art
The Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art is a contemporary art institution in Berlin’s Mitte District. It is located at - Auguststrasse 69 D-10117 Berlin....
in Berlin, Alÿs collaborated with Alejandro González Iñárritu
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Alejandro González Iñárritu is a Mexican film director.González Iñárritu is the first Mexican director to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and by the DGA of America for Best Director. He is also the first and only Mexican born director to have won the Prix de la mise en scene...
on an installation entitled Amores Perros - El Ensayo (Amores Perros - The Rehearsal, 2002). The scenes shown on numerous monitors and projections were not from the film itself but from hours and hours of crude research video, casting clips, acting rehearsals and discarded rushes.
Painting
Alÿs regularly employs Mexican sign-painters ("rotulistas") to paint enlarged and elaborated versions of his small paintings, which they are free to produce in limitless copies. An example is the series of paintings called The Liar, the Copy of the Liar (1997). His intention is to challenge the idea of the original artwork, rendering the process of making more anonymous and deflating the perceived commercial value of art.The paintings in the series Le Temps du sommeil were begun in 1996 and often worked on at night. They feature visionary dreamlike scenes involving tiny suited men and women acting out strange rituals reminiscent of children's games and gymnastic experiments.
For nearly twenty years the Alÿs has been collecting images of Saint Fabiola
Saint Fabiola
Saint Fabiola was a Roman matron of rank of the company of noble Roman women who, under the influence of the Church father St. Jerome, gave up all earthly pleasures and devoted themselves to the practice of Christian asceticism and to charitable work....
, a fourth century patrician Roman woman who, despite divorce and remarriage, later did such fervent penance that she was welcomed back to the faith and, after her death, sainted. For years she fell into oblivion, but in the nineteenth century returned to popularity as the protagonist of a novel
Fabiola (novel)
Fabiola or, the Church of the Catacombs is a novel by the English Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman. It was first published in 1854.-Plot summary:...
named after her. Alÿs acquired his Fabiola portraits, mostly the work of amateurs, from thrift shops, flea markets and antiques stores primarily in Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Holland, and Germany. All the works have been left in their original state. The artists, dates and places of origin are largely unknown. Fabiola is always depicted in profile with her head covered in a rich red veil. Alÿs has been presenting his collection since 1994. He looks for a special location for each Fabiola exhibition, devising a new constellation for the portraits, which now number over 350. In 1997, 60 of his Fabiolas were exhibited at London's Whitechapel Art Gallery.
Exhibitions
Alÿs' work has been shown in many international institutions, including the Wiels (2010–2011), Tate ModernTate Modern
Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
, London (2010), The AiM Biennale (Arts in Marrakech International Biennale)
Arts in Marrakech Festival
The AiM International Biennale first took place in September 2005 It was set up by Vanessa Branson and Abel Damoussi. It is the first major Trilingual festival in North Africa.. It focuses on cutting-edge contemporary Visual art, Literature and Film...
, The Renaissance Society
The Renaissance Society
The Renaissance Society is a non-collecting contemporary art museum in Chicago, Illinois. It is located on the campus of the University of Chicago, although it is a fully separate entity.-Overview:...
, Chicago (2008), the Hammer Museum
Hammer Museum
The Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Culture Center, or the Hammer Museum as it is more commonly known, is an art museum in the Westwood district of Los Angeles, California...
, Los Angeles (2007), Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany, MALBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Lima - Perú ; Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg; Musée d'Art Contemporain, Avignon, France (2004); Centro nazionale per le arti contemporanee, Rome, Italy [traveled to Kunsthaus Zürich
Kunsthaus Zürich
The Kunsthaus Zürich houses one of the most important art museums in Switzerland and Europe, collected by the local Kunstverein, called Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft, and holdings running from the Middle Ages to contemporary art, with an emphasis on Swiss art.Kunsthaus is also the name of the tram stop...
, Zürich, and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is the official name of Spain's national museum of 20th century art . The museum was officially inaugurated on September 10, 1992 and is named for Queen Sofia of Spain...
, Madrid] (all 2003); and Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, New York, NY (2002, 2011); and Or Gallery
Or Gallery
The Or Gallery is a non-profit artist run centre based in Vancouver, Canada. The gallery is run by a paid Director/Curator and a voluntary Board of Directors. The Director/Curator of the Or is an appointed working artist who is hired for a limited time...
, Vancouver, Canada (1998). His traveling show of portraits of the Saint Fabiola has traveled to London, New York,Perú and LAMCA. Alÿs participated in the Venice Biennial in 1999, 2001 and 2007, and the Carnegie International
Carnegie International
The Carnegie International is the oldest North American exhibition of contemporary art from around the globe. It was first organized at the behest of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie on November 5, 1896 in Pittsburgh. Carnegie established the International to educate and inspire the...
in 2004.
Alÿs is represented by David Zwirner
David Zwirner
David Zwirner is a gallerist and art dealer and owner of the David Zwirner Gallery in New York City. In 2010 Zwirner was listed at number four in the ArtReview annual "Power 100" list.-Early Life:...
in New York and Galerie Peter Kilchmann in Zurich.
External links
- Artist's official website
- Francis Alÿs at David Zwirner
- Selected Press at David Zwirner
- Francis Alÿs: Politics of Rehearsal at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2008
- Catalogue for the exhibition Francis Alÿs: Politics of Rehearsal published by the Hammer Museum
- Artforum review of Politics of Rehearsal, 2008
- Francis Alÿs: Fabiola at LACMA, Los Angeles, Winter 2008-2009
- Lynne Cooke's essay on Fabiola, 2008
- Francis Alÿs: Bolero at The Renaissance Society, Chicago, 2008
- Francis Alÿs: Sometimes Doing Something Poetic Can Become Political and Sometimes Doing Something Political Can Become Poetic at David Zwirner, 2007
- Exhibition catalogue with DVD published by David Zwirner
- New York Times review of Francis Alÿs at David Zwirner
- Francis Alÿs: Seven Walks, 2005
- Francis Alÿs published by Phaidon
- Francis Alÿs: The Modern Procession, 2002, presented by Public Art Fund in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art
- Francis Alÿs: Rehearsal II for Performa 05
- Interview with Francis Alÿs, 2005
- Biography in spanish
- Mark Godfrey, TJ Demos, Eyal Weizman, Ayesha Hameed: "Rights of Passage." Tate etc. Issue 19 (Summer 2010).