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  • Francis Alÿs

Francis Alÿs

born 1959

Untitled 2000–10
© Francis Alÿs
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Biography

Francis Alÿs (born 1959, Antwerp) is a Belgian-born, Mexico-based artist.

His work emerges in the interdisciplinary space of art, architecture, and social practice. In 1986, Alÿs left behind his profession as an architect and relocated to Mexico City, where he lives and works.

He has created a diverse body of artwork and performance art that explores urban tensions and geopolitics. Employing a broad range of media, from painting to performance, his works examine the tension between politics and poetics, individual action and impotence. Alÿs commonly enacts paseos—walks that resist the subjection of common space.

Cyclical repetition and mechanics of progression and regression also inform the character of Alÿs' actions and mythology—Alÿs contrasts geological and technological time through land-based and social practice that examine individual memory and collective mythology. Alÿs frequently engages rumor as a central tool in his practice, disseminating ephemeral, practice-based works through word-of-mouth and storytelling. He has document children's games for decades.

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Conceptual photography Performance art Conceptual art

Artworks

Left Right
  • Francis Alÿs The Last Clown

    1995–2000
  • Francis Alÿs Knots

    2005
  • Francis Alÿs A Personal Repertoire of Possible Behaviour While Walking the Streets in London Town

    2005
  • Francis Alÿs The Commuters

    2005
  • Francis Alÿs Pebble Walk

    1999
  • Francis Alÿs Railings

    2004
  • Francis Alÿs The Nightwatch

    2004
  • Francis Alÿs Guards

    2004
See all 15

Film and audio

  • TateShots

    Francis Alÿs: The Last Clown

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