Publisher: Galerie Peter Kilchmann.
The 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: at eye level, the paintings positioned evenly on the wall form a calm line of monochrome, earthy brown tones that stretches across all three rooms on the upper floor. Only upon a more closer look, does the viewer become aware of the white, delicate brushstrokes found in grids and static beams that draw an individual border fence in the deserted space on each work.
Alÿs began the series in 2019, but a large part of the work was created in 2020, when Alÿs was secluded in the rural valley of Tepoztlan, about 75 km south of Mexico City, during the first Corona lockdown. He oriented his work based on his own sketches and archived photographs of various closed borders from around the world, which he merged with his memory of each place. Each fence has neither beginning nor end and reveals itself to be insurmountable and impenetrable, partly through barbed wire and partly through fine-meshed wire patterns. Despite the abstracted landscape, the names of the regions in conflict, such as AFGHANISTAN/ PAKISTAN or ISRAEL/ WESTBANK, are written in capital letters in the lower left and upper right corners, respectively.
