[D66] Francis Alÿs: "The Private View"

[A.OUT]

Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen presents Francis Alÿs: "The Private View"

#MuseumMorsbroich #FrancisAlÿs

The highly explosive mega-city as an artistic referential space: sheep
surround a flagpole on Mexico City’s giant central square, the Zócalo; a
dog roams the streets and alleys, and the artist himself wanders through
the capital of his adopted home for hours as a kind of secret observer,
as an agent of his own artistic activity. Expansive, long-term projects
dominate the work of the Belgian artist Francis Alÿs, who is one of the
most internationally renowned artists of his generation. The exhibition
in Leverkusen combines works from his early period, a few years after
his move to Mexico City, creating a comprehensive urban narrative.

Francis Alÿs (*1959 in Antwerp, BE) studied architecture in Belgium and
Italy. Having gone to Mexico City for an earthquake relief project for
the Belgian government in the late 1980s, the city became a central
theme of his early work, with all its contradictions and complexity. The
megametropolis is presented in the exhibition as the source of
inspiration and site for his contemplative walks ("Paseos"), with a
24-part photographic work, "Sunpath" (1999), and two video pieces. The
central flagpole on the politically historic and at the same time
socially problematic central square, the Zócalo, is not just an object
that sheep are led around in reference to a concrete event during the
political unrest in 1968 ("Cuentos Patrióticos," 1997, in collaboration
with Rafael Ortega). It also serves as a linchpin in the video piece
"Zócalo" (1999) for a “social performance,” whose actors includes random
people who happened to be in the space.

The figure of the dog, which is addressed in a sculptural and painterly
way in several works in the exhibition, also plays a central role in
Francis Alÿs’ work. It functions as a consciously placed counterpart, as
a subversive element that penetrates into rational systems of order.
Just like the plot of a game that does not follow any kind of economic
logic, the dog is not just an “intellectual” stumbling stone, but also
opens up a certain spiritual joy in experimentation and freedom of
movement. (...) e-flux.com/announcements/272098/francis-alsthe-private-view/