Francis Alÿs

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

Life

Francis Alÿs studied architecture from 1978 to 1983 at the Institut d' Architecture in Tournai and then to 1986 at the Instituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, Venice. In 1987, he came as an engineer to Mexico to participate in a service project of the Belgian government for an earthquake destroyed capital. After the action he remained in Mexico, turned to artistic works and learned the Mexican curator Guillermo Santamarina know which showed the work of the young generation of artists in his showroom El Salon de los Aztecas:

Work

As early as 1991 he made with "walk" a first art action that he, like the following, documented on a video. On a stroll ( paseo ) through the city center, he drew a magnetic dog on wheels behind him, tended to stick to the more and more lying on the road in the course of hardware. In the slide series begun in 1997, "sleeper ", he documented motionless in the streets of Mexico City lying people in whom was indistinguishable whether it was dead or just sleeping. The series is updated annually by the artist continuously. For Alÿs, which avoids having to leave expansive sculptures or installations that roamed on foot urban space remained an important form of work. In another action, he pushed a block of ice for so long through the city, to this, an evaporating water trail was leaving behind melted. In "Fairy Tales" (1994 ) he unraveled during a paseos on his knit sweater and put the wool thread, the trace of his walk:

Alÿs was invited to the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001, in the opening days of a peacock (Pavo cristatus) but was represented, which made ​​paseos his place. The trained peacock which was supervised by a uniformed attendant, strutted through the Giardini, Arsenale and the environment through the Piazza San Marco. He also took the dates of the artist true to the evening reception. For the action postcards were produced that were distributed during the walk. Very much more expensive was a 2002 for the Biennale in Lima (Peru ) created work that he had to run in a poor neighborhood in Ventanilla far from the capital. For his work Faith Moves Mountains ( If faith can move mountains ) he had 500 voluntary and unpaid helpers who were armed only with shovels, put a 200 meters high and 500 meters long sand dune by only 10 cm. This work is from July 8 to October 9, 2011 as part of the exhibition: Fantastic Narratives in Contemporary Video shown at the Berlin Kunsthalle German Guggenheim: Once Upon a Time.

The work The Rehearsal 1 showed Francis Alÿs in 2004 on the occasion of his award of the blue orange price in the Martin- Gropius-Bau: A red VW Beetle tries to ride a rising sand track - and rolled back again and again. In the original performance in Tijuana also drove a red VW a dirt road up the hill. Behind the hill, the border was to the United States. As long as a Brass Band played, he stepped on the gas, they stopped playing, the car rolled back to the laughter of those present. Given the allusions you can call it cryptic.

The extensive and diverse artist's work consists of videos, drawings, paintings, photographs, performances and sound works. Alÿs has his studio near the historic cathedral in one of the side streets of the " Zocalo " in Mexico City.

Quotes

"Sometimes it leads to nothing, when you do something, sometimes it leads to something if you do not mind. "

" You can reach actually what you want to achieve, the fact that you hold life in a permanent rehearsal, a constant sample. Maybe a dress rehearsal, but it is a test. "

Awards (selection)

• 2002 Hugo Boss Prize
• 2004: blue orange - Price
• 2008: Audience Award at The Vincent van Gogh Biennial Award for Contemporary Art in Europe

Exhibitions (selection)

• 2013: slapstick; Joint exhibition. Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg
• 2011: Once Upon a Time, German Guggenheim, Berlin
• 2011: Francis Alÿs, MoMA PS1, New York City
• 2011: Francis Alÿs. A Story of Deception, Museum of Modern Art, New York City
• 2009: Fabiola, Los Angeles County Museum of Art / LACMA, 2011: show bearing the Laurenz Foundation, Munich Stein, BL
• 2006: A Story of Deception, portico, Frankfurt am Main
• 2004: Walking Distance from the Studio, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; 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 Biennale di Venezia; 7th Istanbul Biennial
• 1996: Museo de Arte Contemporaneo 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, inter alia, Francis Alys, Phaidon Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7148-4321-6
• Francis Alÿs. Rehearsal I, Walter König, 2005, ISBN 978-3-88375-866-4