A man pushes a massive block of ice through the streets of Mexico City until it melts to nothing. Five hundred volunteers walk over a sand dune in Lima, digging with spades in an attempt to shift the dune a few centimetres as they go. Filming his efforts to enter the center of a tornado or carrying a leaking can of paint along the Israeli-Palestinian border: these are some of the seminal works of Francis Alÿs. The artist himself has described his practice as "a sort of discursive argument composed of episodes, metaphors, or parables“.
Trained as an architect and urbanist, Francis Alÿs (*1959, Belgium) moved to Mexico in 1986 to work with local NGO’s. In 1990 he entered the field of visual arts. His practice embraces multiple media, from painting and drawing to video and photography.
Although his studio is based in Mexico City, he has done over the last 20 years numerous projects in collaboration with local communities around the world, from South America to North Africa and Middle East. For example, in Peru he produced an event where 500 volunteers moved a sand dune just a few centimeters (When Faith Moves Mountains, Lima, 2002).
Since 2016 he has been engaged in a series of new projects in Iraq, such as Hopscotch (2016), produced in collaboration with the Yazidi Refugee Camp of Sharya, Duhok, Iraq, or Color Matching (2016), filmed while being embedded with Kurdish forces during the siege of Mosul. In 2020 he premiered the feature film Sandlines produced in collaboration with Julien Devaux and the children of a small mountain village of the Nineveh province in festivals such as Sundance, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, FID Marseille, and many others.
With humour, sensitivity and an acutely personal connection to his subject matter, Francis Alÿs examines the patterns of urban sites before weaving his own fables. He explores subjects such as modernism in Latin America and border zones in areas of politic conflicts, asking about the relevance of poetic acts. Alÿs’s work starts with a simple action, either by him or others, which is then documented in a range of media. From that point onward, the fables take on a life of their own. His works often seem to be documents or traces of an artistic practice. Alÿs has used video and film, but also other media such as postcards. Painting and drawing remain central to his work. Alÿs consistently comes back to once-developed themes, treating his previous works like a repository for future pieces. In its repetition and transmission he continues a larger story, trying to materialise a missing episode. What makes Alÿs’s practice so compelling is that he manages to address the political through poetic acts.
Major solo exhibitions include (selection): The Belgian Pavilion, Venice Biennale (2022), Fragmentos, Bogota (2020), Tai Kwun, Hong Kong (2020), Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2018); Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2017); Art Museum, Arizona (2017); Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2015); Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (2015); Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2013); Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (2013); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2011); Tate Modern, London (2010) and Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2003).
His work has been included in major international group exhibitions such as: Shanghai Biennial (2018); Iraqi Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017); dOCUMENTA(13), Kassel (2012) and is found in public collections worldwide, including the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; Art Institute of Chicago; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and Tate Modern, London. In 2021, he will have a solo exhibition at Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne.
He was awarded the Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon (2020); EYE Art & Film Prize, EYE Filmmuseum, Amsterdam (2018); BACA-laureate Prize (2010); Vincent Award (2008) and the Blue Orange Prize (2004).
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DRCongo (les clandestins), 2021
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Children’s Game #29: La roue, Lubumbashi, DR Congo, 2021
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Untitled (After the Blast), Nawaran, Iraq, 2016
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Lada Kopeika Project, 2014
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Untitled (7th Parachute Regiment), 2013
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Sleepers IV, 2011
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Reel - Unreel, 2011
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Children's Game #10: Papalote (Kite), Balkh, Afghanistan, 2011
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Untitled (Kabul, Afghanistan), 2011
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Camgun #73, 2008
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Untitled (Don’t Cross the Bridge before You Get to the River), 2008
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Geographies, 2007-2008
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Untitled (Don’t Cross the Bridge before You Get to the River), 2005-2009
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Untitled (Study for Don‘t Cross the Bridge Before You Get to the River), 2005-2009
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Untitled (Study for Don‘t Cross the Bridge Before You Get to the River), 2005-2009
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Athens, Time Lapse, 2003
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Rehearsal I, 1999-2004
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Zocalo, May 22, 1999, 1999
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Paradox of Praxis 1 (Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing), 1997
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The Leak (Sao Paolo), 1995
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Untitled (Baños Ecuador, México, D.F.), 1990
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Francis Alÿs
Francis AlÿsRicochets
Fundação de Serralves
Porto, Portugal
18 Oct 2024 - 16 Mar 2025Action is at the centre of Alÿs’s practice. He was the protagonist of most of his interventions in the 1990s, using his own body because it was immediately available. Children’s...Read more -
Francis Alÿs
RicochetsBarbican Art Gallery
London, England
27 Jun - 1 Sep 2024A new immersive exhibition celebrating the universality and ingenuity of play: Ricochets is the largest institutional show in the UK by internationally renowned artist Francis Alÿs in almost 15 years....Read more -
Backstage Engelberg
Backstage EngelbergEngelberg (OW), Switzerland
23 Jun - 18 Aug 2024BACKSTAGE Engelberg A journey of discovery with 50 artists June 23 to August 18, 2024, Engelberg/OW The 'BACKSTAGE Engelberg' is an exhibition in predominantly hidden locations in the Alpine municipality...Read more -
Francis Alÿs and Melanie Smith
The Paradoxes of Internationalism (As Narrated by the Museo Tamayo Collection). Part IIMuseo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico 11 Apr - 25 Aug 2024'The Paradoxes of Internationalism (As Narrated by the Museo Tamayo Collection). Part II ,“ marks Rufino Tamayo's 125th anniversary by examining his role in creating Mexico's first international art museum....Read more -
Francis Alÿs
The Nature of the GameWIELS, Brussels, Belgium
7 Sep 2023 - 7 Jan 2024Following his presentation for the Flemish entry for the Belgian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, Alÿs presents this new, more comprehensive version of the exhibition The Nature...Read more -
Francis Alÿs
Children's GamesMUAC, Mexico city, Mexico
11 Feb - 17 Sep 2023The children’s games that Alÿs captures constitute a threatened underground culture that brought together generations and crossed borders, and which are extremely interesting due to their conceptual implications. Their rules,...Read more -
30 Years Anniversary Exhibition
Galerie Peter Kilchmann
Rämistrasse, Zurich
3 Sep - 14 Oct 202230 Years Anniversary Exhibition Rita Ackermann (*1968 Budapest), Francis Alÿs (*1959 Antwerpen), Maja Bajevic (*1967 Sarajevo), Hernan Bas (*1978 Miami), Armin Boehm (*1972 Aachen), Marc Bauer (*1975 Genf), Monica Bonvicini...Read more -
Francis Alÿs
The Nature of the GameBelgian Pavilion, Venice Biennale, Italy
23 Apr - 27 Nov 2022Known for addressing complex geopolitical issues through his imaginative and poetic observations of daily life, Alÿs (b. 1959) has documented children at play in public spaces across the globe in...Read more -
Francis Alÿs
Border Barriers TypologyGalerie Peter Kilchmann, Rämistrasse, Zurich
16 Oct - 22 Dec 2021The politically complex dimension of the subject of Border BarriersTypology is translated in Alÿs' work into a simple straightforwardness that finds its formal equivalent in the presentation in the exhibition...Read more -
Francis Alÿs
Wet feet __ dry feet: borders and gamesTai Kwun, Hong Kong, China
28 Oct - 1 Feb 2020The title of the exhibition was the spark to Alÿs’s works in this exhibition: “Wet Feet, Dry Feet” refers to the 1995 US policy on Cuban refugees. Under this policy,...Read more -
Francis Alÿs
Le temps du sommeilSecession, Vienna, Austria
18 Nov 2016 - 22 Jan 2017Le temps du sommeil (1996–) is a series of 111 paintings created over the course of two decades. They are deliberately unfinished: Alÿs occasionally alters or even overpaints individual panels—a...Read more -
Three Statements in Painting
Francis Alÿs, John Armleder, Valérie FavreGalerie Peter Kilchmann, Zahnradstrasse, Zurich
15 Apr - 28 May 2011With Francis Alÿs, John Armleder and Valérie Favre, Peter Kilchmann is pleased to present three artists who all also work in the medium of painting, yet have very singular positions....Read more -
Francis Alÿs
La dépenseRockbund Art Museum, Shanghai. China
12 Mar - 28 Aug 2011Such a notion is tightly wound into Alÿs’ artistic practice, which Hasegawa commends for “courageously grappling with the status quo; casting doubts on our visual sense; rethinking the meaning of...Read more -
Die Nase des Michelangelo
Special location: Marktgasse 4 - 6, Zurich, Switzerland 10 - 19 Dec 2010Rita Ackermann / Francis Alÿs / Maja Bajević / Michael Bauer / Christoph Büchel / Valentin Carron / Urs Fischer / Peter Fischli & David Weiss / Bruno Jakob /...Read more -
Francis Alÿs
A Story of DeceptionTate Modern London, London, UK
15 Jun - 5 Sep 2010Francis Alÿs’s work often starts with a simple act, either by him or others, which is then documented in a range of media. Working in urban settings and dramatic landscapes,...Read more -
Deux Pièces
Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Limmatstrasse 270, Zürich 7 Jun - 24 Jul 2009Mario Comensoli / Trudi Demut / Karl Geiser / Emma Kunz / Adolf Wölfli / Rita Ackermann / Francis Alÿs / Michael Bauer / Raffi Kalenderian / Zilla Leutenegger /...Read more -
15 Jahre Galerie Peter Kilchmann 1992 - 2007
Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Limmatstrasse, Zurich 30 Aug - 11 Oct 2008Rita Ackermann / Francis Alÿs / Maja Bajević / Michael Bauer / Willie Doherty / Bruno Jakob / Jochen Kuhn / Zilla Leutenegger / Jorge Macchi, Teresa Margolles / Fabian...Read more -
Francis Alÿs
L'AttenteGalerie Peter Kilchmann, Limmatstrasse (Löwenbräu), Zurich
2 Jun - 13 Jul 2001
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Francis Alÿs, 2024
Ricochets Published by PrestelHardcover, 21 × 27 cm, 256 Pages, English
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Francis Alÿs
Children’s Games, 2023 Text by Cuauhtémoc Medina, Luis Pérez-Oramas, Lorna Scott FoxMUAC, Mexico City
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Francis Alÿs
The Nature of the Game, 2022 Text by David MacDougallBelgian pavilion at the 59th Biennale di Venezia
Publisher: DCV Read more -
Francis Alÿs, 2022
Text by Michael Taussig, Russell Ferguson, Cuauhtémoc Medina, and Jean FisherPublisher: Phaidon
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Francis Alÿs
As Long as I’m Walking, 2021 Introduction by Nicole Schweizer, Texts by Julia Bryan-Wilson, Luis Pérez-Oramas, Judith RodenbeckMusée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne
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Francis Alÿs
Border Barriers Typology, 2021 Introduction by Peter KilchmannText by Catherine Lampert
Hardcover, 24 x 18, 80 pages, English
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Francis Alÿs
Children's Games, 2019 Text by Marente Bloemheuvel, Jaap Guldemond, Cuauhtémoc Medina, David MacDougall, Lorna Scott FoxEye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam
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Francis Alÿs
The Private View Works from German Collections, 2019 Texts by Stefanie Kreuzer, Noemi SmolikMuseum Morsbroich, Leverkusen
Hardcover, 108 pages, English/German Read more -
Francis Alÿs
Le Temps du Sommeil, 2016 Text by Catherine LampertPublisher: Secession, Vienna
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Francis Alÿs
A Story of Negotiation, 2015 Text by Francis Alÿs, Cuauhtémoc Medina and Michael TaussigMuseo Tamayo, Mexico City
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Francis Alÿs
Reel-Unreel, 2014 Texts by Francis Alÿs, Fabio Cavallucci, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Mariam Ghani, Ewa Gorzadek, Ajmal Maiwandi, Amanullah Mojadidi, Robert Slifkin, Michael Taussig, Mario Garcia Torres, Andrea VilianiCentre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castel
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Francis Alÿs
Don't Cross the Bridge Before You Get to the River, 2013 Texts by Francis Alÿs, Kazumo Yoshizaki and Yukie KamiyaMuseum of Contemporary Art Tokyo and Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art
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Francis Alÿs
Fabiola, 2011 Foreword by Maja Oeri, texts by Lynne Cook, Dario Libero GamboniSchaulager, Basel
Publisher: Schwabe Verlag
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Francis Alÿs
Silencio, 2010 Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht Read more -
Francis Alÿs
Sign Painting Project, 2010 Texts by Francis Alÿs, Néstor García Canclini, Cuauhtémoc Medina, Monika KästliSchaulager, Basel
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Francis Alÿs
Fabiola, 2008 Texts by David Morgan, Susan Laningham, Stephen Bann, Martha Buskirk, Lynne Cooke and Saint JeromeDia Art Foundation, New York
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Francis Alÿs
Politics of Rehearsal, 2007 Text by Russell FergusonHammer Museum, Los Angeles 2007
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Francis Alÿs
A Story of Deception - Patagonia, 2006 Introduction by Nikola Dietrich, Texts by Olivier Debroise, Francis AlÿsPortikus, Frankfurt am Main, 2006
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Francis Alÿs
When Faith Moves Mountains, 2005 Interview with Francis Alÿs, Raphael Ortega and Cuauhtémoc MedinaText by Saul Anton, Susan Buck-Morss, Gustavo Buntinx, Lynne Cock, Corinne Diserens, Gerardo Mosquera
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Francis Alÿs
Seven Walks, London, 2005 Texts by Francis Alÿs, Robert Harbison, David Toop, Interview with the artist by James Lingwood Read more -
Francis Alÿs
Time is the Trick of the Mind, 2004 Essay by Andreas BeeMMK, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main
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Francis Alÿs
Walking Distance from the Studio, 2005 Texts by Annelie Lütgens, Corinne Diserens, Gijs van TuylKunstmuseum Wolfsburg
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Francis Alÿs
The Prophet and the Fly Text by Catherine Lampert, Plato, Nietzsche, D.H. Lawrence (...),Centro Nazionale per le Arti Contemporanee, Rom, Kunsthaus, Zurich, Reina Sofia, Madrid
, 2002 Read more