Francis Alÿs, a Belgian-born artist based in Mexico City, has become a pivotal figure in the interdisciplinary realms of art, architecture, and social practice. Since leaving his profession as an architect in 1986 to relocate to Mexico, Alÿs has cultivated a diverse and thought-provoking body of work that navigates urban tensions and geopolitics. His art, which spans various media including painting and performance, often explores the delicate balance between politics and poetics, as well as the dichotomy between individual action and impotence. Alÿs' practice is marked by his distinctive paseos—walks that challenge the conventional use of public space—and his engagement with cyclical repetition, where he juxtaposes geological and technological time to delve into individual and collective memory. Through the use of rumor and storytelling, Alÿs creates ephemeral works that resonate through word-of-mouth, reflecting his deep commitment to exploring the intersections of art, society, and mythology.
Artist Biography: Francis Alÿs
Francis Alÿs, a Belgian-born artist now based in Mexico City, has crafted a unique and multifaceted career that spans across various media, including video, installation, painting, and drawing. His work is deeply rooted in the exploration of social, cultural, and geopolitical issues, often through the lens of everyday life. In his early years, Alÿs himself was the primary performer of his actions, but over the past decade, children have become central to his projects, reflecting a shift in his focus toward communal and collective experiences. His practice is marked by intense observation and engagement with specific locations, often manifested through walks that serve as both literal and metaphorical journeys. These actions, such as The Collector (1991) and The Leak (1995), blur the lines between art and life, using simple, yet powerful gestures to critique the socio-political fabric of the environments he navigates.
Alÿs' work frequently incorporates the concept of cyclical repetition and explores the intersection of individual and collective memory. His performances, like When Faith Moves Mountains (2002) and The Rehearsal (1999), often involve acts of physical labor or endurance, highlighting the tension between effort and futility. In Tornado (2000-2010), Alÿs chases after dust devils in Mexico, a seemingly absurd pursuit that underscores the artist's fascination with the forces of nature and the human compulsion to confront them. Alÿs' engagement with geopolitical borders is evident in works such as The Green Line (2004), where he traces the 1948 ceasefire border in Jerusalem with a line of green paint, emphasizing the arbitrary nature of territorial divisions.
Beyond performance, Alÿs is also an accomplished painter, drawing inspiration from pre-Renaissance Italian art and Mexican sign painting. His paintings, such as those in the series Le temps du sommeil, are dreamlike and allegorical, often reflecting the themes and forms present in his actions. Alÿs views painting as a necessary complement to his performance work, allowing him to explore ideas that cannot be easily conveyed through other media. His paintings are not merely illustrations of his performances but are instead meditative reflections that deepen the narrative and emotional resonance of his overall practice.
Alÿs' contributions to contemporary art have been widely recognized, earning him numerous awards, including the Vincent Award (2008), the BACA-laureate prize (2010), and the Rolf Schock Prize in Visual Arts (2020). His work has been celebrated for its ability to merge poetics with politics, creating art that is as intellectually engaging as it is visually and emotionally compelling.
Projects
One of his most enduring projects, The Fabiola Project, began in 1994 when Alÿs started collecting amateur reproductions of Jean-Jacques Henner's 19th-century painting of Saint Fabiola. Sourced from flea markets and antique shops across the globe—including Mexico, Chile, Brazil, and Russia—these portraits are left untouched, preserving the anonymity and idiosyncrasies of their creators. Alÿs' fascination with these widely produced replicas lies in their challenge to the notion of what constitutes an icon, questioning whether an icon is defined by official art history or by the collective, obsessive reproduction of a particular image by countless amateur artists. The collection, which started with 24 pieces, was first exhibited in Mexico City in 1994 and has since grown to 514 portraits, displayed in renowned venues like Dia Art Foundation, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Byzantine Fresco Chapel in Houston. In recent years, Alÿs' work has taken him to conflict zones such as Afghanistan and Iraq, where he produced a series of deeply reflective projects. His film Reel-Unreel (2011), created during his time in Afghanistan, metaphorically critiques the Western portrayal of the Afghan people and their way of life, while his work in Iraq from 2015 to 2020 includes the feature film Sandlines, the Story of History (2020), where children reenact a century of Iraqi history. These projects, alongside his ongoing Children's Games series—which documents children's play across various global locations—illustrate Alÿs' commitment to exploring the intersections of culture, history, and human experience through a lens that is both intimate and expansive.
Exhibition History
His major surveys include A Story of Deception (2010-2011), which was exhibited at Tate Modern in London, Wiels Centre d'Art Contemporain in Brussels, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, alongside MoMA PS1 in Long Island City. Another key survey, A Story of Negotiation (2015-2017), traveled from Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City to Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) – Fundación Costantini, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de la Habana in Havana, and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. Over the past decade, Alÿs has also held solo exhibitions at prominent institutions such as WIELS, Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels (2023-24), Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) in Mexico City (2023), Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts in Taipei (2022), Copenhagen Contemporary (2022), Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne (2021), and Museo Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá (2020). His work has been featured at the Rockbund Art Museum (RAM) in Shanghai (2018), Art Sonje Center in Seoul (2018), and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, which traveled to the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (2013). Notable earlier exhibitions include the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin (2010), The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (2008), Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2007), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC (2006), and Portikus in Frankfurt (2006). Alÿs has participated in the Venice Biennale multiple times—in 1999, 2001, 2007, 2017, and notably represented Belgium at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022 with his solo presentation The Nature of the Game. His recent participation in Manif d’art, the Québec City Biennale in 2024, and a solo exhibition at the Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI) further underscore his ongoing influence in the contemporary art world.
Francis Alÿs has established himself as a critical voice in contemporary art, weaving together politics, poetics, and social commentary through a multidisciplinary approach that challenges and redefines the boundaries of art. His unique perspective, shaped by his architectural background and deep engagement with the complexities of urban life, has led to a body of work that is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally resonant. By harnessing the power of simple gestures, cyclical repetition, and storytelling, Alÿs has created a legacy that continues to influence and inspire, bridging the gap between the personal and the collective, the ephemeral and the eternal. His ongoing exploration of the intersections between art, society, and mythology ensures that his work will remain relevant and thought-provoking for generations to come.
Selena Mattei
