Francis Alÿs

Francis Alÿs (* 1959 in Antwerp , Belgium ) is a Belgian photographer , painter , action and video artist . He lives and works in Mexico City .

Life

Francis Alÿs grew up in Pajottenland, Belgium . He studied architecture from 1978 to 1983 at the Institut d'Architecture in Tournai and then until 1986 at the Instituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia in Venice . In 1987 he came to Mexico as an engineer to work on an aid project run by the Belgian government after the earthquake in Mexico City in 1985 . After the measure had expired, he stayed in Mexico, turned to artistic work and met the Mexican curator Guillermo Santamarina, who showed the work of the young generation of artists in his exhibition space El Salon de los Aztecas:

"The chaos, the mixture of historical buildings and everyday life, the mass of traders who dominate the cityscape, which cannot be compared with any other city in Europe and have practically created a parallel economy, fascinated me from the start [...] . "

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Alys' work consists of video films, drawings, paintings, photographs, performances and sound works. In 1991 he made his first art action with Walk , which, like the following, he documented on video. On a foray (paseo) through the city center, he pulled a magnetic dog on wheels behind him, to which more and more pieces of iron on the street got stuck.

In the slide series Sleepers , which began in 1997, he documented people lying motionless in the streets of Mexico City, who could not tell whether they were dead or just sleeping. The artist updates the series on an annual basis.

For Alÿs, who avoids leaving extensive sculptures or installations behind, the urban space roamed on foot remained an important form of work. In another operation, he pushed a block of ice through the city until it had melted, leaving a trail of evaporating water. In Fairy Tales (1994) he unraveled his knitted sweater during a “paseos” and laid the trail of his walk with the wool thread:

“What remains of the walks is a strange mixture of facts and rumors. Sometimes, therefore, doubts arise as to whether everything really happened as the 'documents' presented in exhibitions suggest. [...] Last but not least, they reactivate the myth of the artist who questions and reinvents the world, who - without falling for a new romanticism - turns his attention back to the mysterious in everyday life. "

Alÿs was invited to the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001, but was represented on the opening days by a peacock (Pavo cristatus), who made the “paseos” instead. The trained peacock, who was looked after by a uniformed companion, strutted through the “Giardini”, the main venue of the Biennale, through the arsenal of Venice and the area around St. Mark's Square . He also kept the artist's appointments at the evening receptions. Postcards were produced for the campaign and distributed during the walk.

His 2002 for the Biennale in Lima ( Peru created work) he had in Ventanilla near the capital are running in a poor neighborhood. For his work Faith Moves Mountains (“When Faith Moves Mountains ”), he had 500 volunteers, who were only equipped with shovels, move a sand dune 200 meters high and 500 meters long by just 10 cm. This work was shown in 2011 as part of the exhibition: Once Upon a Time: Fantastic Narratives in Contemporary Video in the Berlin Kunsthalle Deutsche Guggenheim .

Francis Alÿs showed his work The Rehearsal 1 in 2004 on the occasion of his awarding the blueOrange Prize in the Martin-Gropius-Bau : A red VW Beetle tries to drive down a sloping dirt road - and keeps rolling back. In the original performance in Tijuana , a red VW was also driving up a sand track. Behind the hill was the US border. As long as a brass combo was playing, he accelerated, they stopped playing, the car rolled back to the laughter of those present.

Alÿs has his studio near the historic cathedral in one of the side streets of the " Zócalo " in Mexico City.

Quotes

"Sometimes it leads to nothing if you do something, sometimes it leads to something if you do nothing."

- Francis Alys

“You actually get what you want to achieve by keeping life in constant rehearsal, constant rehearsal. Maybe a dress rehearsal, but it's a rehearsal. "

- Francis Alys

Awards (selection)

• 2002: Hugo Boss Prize
• 2004: blueOrange Prize
• 2008: Audience Award at The Vincent van Gogh Biennial Award for Contemporary Art in Europe
• 2020: Rolf Schock Prize for Art

Exhibitions (selection)

• 2019/2020: Francis Alÿs.The Private View , Museum Morsbroich
• 2016/2017: Francis Alÿs “Le temps du sommeil” Vienna Secession
• 2013: Slapstick ; Group exhibition. Wolfsburg Art Museum
• 2011: Once Upon a Time , Deutsche Guggenheim , Berlin
• 2011: Francis Alÿs, MoMA PS1 , New York
• 2011: Francis Alÿs. A Story of Deception , Museum of Modern Art , New York
• 2009: Fabiola , Los Angeles County Museum of Art / LACMA; 2011: Schaulager of the Laurenz Foundation, Münchenstein , BL
• 2006: A Story of Deception , Portikus , Frankfurt am Main
• 2004: Walking Distance from the Studio , Wolfsburg Art Museum; Artist's Choice: Mona Hatoum, Here Is Elsewhere , The Museum of Modern Art, New York; 20/20 Vision , Stedelijk Museum Post CS, Amsterdam; Time Zones: Recent Film and Video , Tate Modern, London
• 2001: 49th Venice Biennale ; 7. Istanbul Biennial
• 1996: Museo de Arte Contemporãneo de Oaxaca, Oaxaca (Mexico)

Literature (selection)

• Francis Alys. Walking Distance from the Studio , Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2005, ISBN 978-3-7757-1541-6
• Francis Alÿs et al. a., Francis Alys , Phaidon, Berlin, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7148-4321-6
• Francis Alÿs. Rehearsal I , Walter König, 2005, ISBN 978-3-88375-866-4

Web links

• Literature by and about Francis Alÿs in the catalog of the German National Library
• Materials by and about Francis Alÿs in the documenta archive
• Francis Alÿs in Google Arts & Culture
• Detailed exhibition directory ( Memento from November 2, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
• Detailed bibliography ( Memento of November 2, 2006 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ A. Macadeam, Francis Alÿs: Architect of the Absurd in Artnews (25 July 2013). Retrieved 23 Nov 2019.
2. ↑ Katharina Dietz. In: Cultrans: Point of View of Art. Views of Art. Königshausen & Neumann, 2005, pp. 181 ff, ISBN 978-3-8260-3022-2
3. ↑ Francis Alÿs in: Magazin art, 10/2002, p. 59  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ^ Cover picture of: Francis Alys, Phaidon, Berlin, 2007
5. ↑ Katrin Wittneven, in: Portrait: Francis Alys. The paradox of practice - step by step: an approach to Francis Alys, db-artmag.de >> 2004/07 >> spotlight ( memento of the original from March 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Andreas Bee, Walks, in: Francis Alÿs. Time is a Trick of the Mind , Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, 2004, p. 9 ff.
7. ↑ Peter Kilchmann, The Enchanting Tales of Francis Alÿs
8. ↑ Andreas Bee, Francis Alÿs Passing through (for the Blue Orange Art Prize) ( Memento of the original from October 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 274 kB)  
9. ↑ Just start rolling or: The cheerful Sisyphus . Blue eyes, May 8, 2007
10. ↑ ^{a b} Deutschlandradio Kultur, May 8, 2011: On the effort to move a sand dune, Francis Alÿ's “A Story Of Deception” in New York
11. ^ Francis Alÿs / Avery Singer . Alexandra Matzner on the double exhibition at the Vienna Secession (2016/2017), artinwords.de
12. ^ A Story of Deception in the Portikus, Frankfurt am Main