Francis Alÿs: Children's GamesMuseo de Arte de Zapopan
Zapopan, Mexico
Curators: Cuauhtémoc Medina and Virginia Roy
This compilation favors games that can be made out of nothing, which means that they can be played with anything that can be found where the game will take place, be it a handkerchief, a bit of rope, an empty can. They often are about invention and about adapting the context to the end of the game.
Whereas adults are more likely to use speech to process experiences, children play to assimilate the realities they encounter. Their games mimic, mock or defy the rules of the adult society that surrounds them. The act of playing may also help them coping with traumatic experiences such as those of war by creating a simulacrum of the real and turning the dramatic circumstances around them into a more fictional, ludic world.
But the magical thing about a children’s game is that it holds no secrets, “it’s all there is”. We as adults, should be faithful to the children we were, remember and trust that moment, the most precious one of our existence.
- Francis Alÿs
