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Francis Alÿs

(Belgian, born 1959)

mexico series by francis alÿs

Francis Alÿs

Mexico series, 1994

Price on Request

Biography

Timeline

1959
Born in Belgium
1978 - 1983
Institut Supérieur d’Architecture de Tournai, Belgium
1983 - 1986
Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, Venice
1990
Began performing paseos-walks-in which he traveled on foot around Mexico City's central downtown area
Lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico

Exhibitions

2018
Francis Alÿs Selected Exhibitions in 2018:
Groundwork, International Art in Cornwall: Francis Alÿs, Silence of Ani, Cornubian Arts & Science Trust (CAST), Helston, England (solo exhibition)
Francis Alÿs, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (solo exhibition)
Francis Alÿs: knots’n dust, Beirut Art Center, Lebanon [itinerary: Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England] (solo exhibition)
12th Gwangju Biennale: Imagined Borders, Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea
12th Shanghai Biennale: Proregress, Art in an Age of Historical Ambivalence, Shanghai
À TIRE-D’AILE. Figures de l’envol, Centre photographique, Rouen, France
Brilliant City, David Zwirner, Hong Kong
Civil War, The Museum Centre of Turku, Turku, Finland
David Zwirner: 25 Years, David Zwirner, New York
Democracy Anew?, PinchukArtCentre, Kiev, Ukraine
Dwelling Poetically: Mexico City, a case study, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia
Ellos y nosotros, Es Baluard Museu d’Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
The Flâneur: From Impressionism to the Present, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany
Hidden/Secret – Strategien des Verborgenen, Villa Merkel, Esslingen am Neckar, Germany
in Tribute to Jack Tilton: A Selection from 35 years, Tilton Gallery, New York
Liverpool Biennial 2018: Beautiful World Where Are You?, Liverpool, England
Other Walks, Other Lines, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California
RESIST! The 1960 protests, photography and visual legacy, BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels
Ritual, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado [third iteration]
Subcontracted nations, A.M. Qattan Foundation, Ramallah, Palestine
Sublevaciones. Didi Huberman, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico [catalogue]
2017
Francis Alÿs Selected Exhibitions in 2017:
Francis Alÿs: Without an Ending There is no Beginning, Jan Mot, Brussels (solo exhibition)
57th Venice Biennale: Archaic, National Pavilion of Iraq, Venice [catalogue]
The Absent Museum, WIELS Centre d’Art Contemporain, Brussels [catalogue]
Action!, Kunsthaus Zürich
Age of Terror: Art since 9/11, Imperial War Museums, London
Anozero ’17, Círculo de Artes Plásticas de Coimbra, Portugal
Approaching the Border, The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida
Being Modern: MoMA in Paris, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris [catalogue]
Bivoaucs/The walks academy, Le Magasin, Centre National d´Art Contemporain, Grenoble, France
Field Guide, Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Gotong Royong. Things we do together, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
I am you, you are too, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Jeux, Rituels et Récréations, lille3000, Lille, France [part of 40 years of the Centre Georges Pompidou]
Juntos Aparte, Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo de America del Sur Casa Museo Torre del Reloj, Cucutá, Colombia
Kathmandu Triennale 2017: The City, My Studio/The City, My Life, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent
La Terra Inquieta/The Restless Earth, La Triennale di Milano, Milan [organized in collaboration with Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan] [catalogue]
Le Rêve des forms, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Life a User’s Manual: The Unavowable Community, Timco Halls, Art Encounters Biennale, Timişoara, Romania
Measures of Distance, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Never Ending Stories: The Loop in Art, Film, Architecture, Music, Literature and Cultural History, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Gemany [catalogue]
Performance!: Les collections du Centre Pompidou, 1967-2017, lille3000, Lille, France
Person of the Crowd: The Contemporary Art of Flânerie, The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia
Pivotal: Highlights from the Collection, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport, California
Reenacting History: Collective Actions and Everyday Gestures, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea
Re-enactments, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila, Philippines
Ruinen Der Gegenwart/Contemporary Ruins, KINDL Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin [catalogue]
Sumer and the Modern Paradigm, Fundació Joan Miró
Tous, des sangs-mélês, Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne MAC VAL, France
An Unorthodox Flow of Images, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia
Unsettled, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno
Variable Dimensions - Artists and Architecture, Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT), Lisbon
Wanderings, Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, Lisbon
Wanderlust: Actions, Traces, Journeys, 1967-2017, University at Buffalo Art Galleries, New York [itinerary: Des Moines Art Center, Iowa]
2016
Francis Alÿs Selected Exhibitions in 2016:
Francis Alÿs: Ciudad Juárez projects, David Zwirner, London (solo exhibition)
Francis Alÿs: Le temps du sommeil, Secession, Vienna (solo exhibition)
20 años de cultura, arte y tecnología, Alta Tecnología Andina, Lima
32nd Bienal de São Paulo: Incerteza viva/Live Uncertainty, Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, São Paulo
Art Festival Watou 2016: On the Strength of Empathy, Watou, Belgium [organized by VZW Kunst, Middelkerke, Belgium]
Detail is all, Kunsthalle Mainz, Germany
Embracing the Contemporary: The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art [catalogue]
Esma’/Listen, Beirut Art Center, Lebanon
Fetichista: Un selección de obras de Colección FEMSA, Casa Luis Barragán, Mexico City
Full Moon, Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, The Netherlands
The Lasting. L’intervallo e la durata/The interval and duration, La Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome [catalogue]
MACBA Collection 31, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA)
The Measure of Our Traveling Feet, Marres, Huis voor Hedendaagse Cultuur, Maastricht, The Netherlands
The Natural Flow of Things, La Casa Encendida, Madrid
Open Spaces | Secret Places: Works from the Sammlung Verbund, Vienna, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
2015 - 2017
Francis Alÿs Selected Exhibitions in 2015-2017:
Francis Alÿs: Relato de una negociación: Una investigación sobre las actividades paralelas de la pintura y el performance/A Story of Negotiation: An investigation into the parallel activities of painting and performance, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City [itinerary: Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) - Fundación Costantini, Buenos Aires; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de la Habana, Havana; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto] [two catalogues published] (solo exhibition)
2015
Francis Alÿs Selected Exhibitions in 2015:
Francis Alÿs: Hotel Juárez, Proyecto Siqueiros, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros - La Tallera, Mexico City (solo exhibition)
14th Istanbul Biennial: TUZLU SU: Düşünce Biçimleri Üzerine Bir Teori/SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms, Istanbul [catalogue and guidebook]
2050. A brief history of the future, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels [organized in collaboration with the Musée du Louvre, Paris] [catalogue]
Adventures of the Black Square: Abstract Art and Society 1915-2015, Whitechapel Gallery, London [catalogue]
A line is a line, Cultuurcentrum Strombeek, Belgium
Atopolis, Manège de Sury, Mons, Belgium (organized by Mons 2015 European Capital of Culture and WIELS Centre d’Art Contemporain, Brussels) [catalogue]
Beleza?, Centro Cultural São Paulo
The Bottom Line, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent
Call and Response, Video Association of Dallas, The McKinney Avenue Contemporary (MAC) [part of the Dallas Medianale 2015]
Collecting for Tomorrow: new works at Museion, Museion, Bolzano, Italy
Ejercicios De Traslado: Colecciones 9915, Centro de Arte Alcobendas, Madrid
Et In Libertalia Ego: un prjet de Mathieu Briand, La maison rouge, Paris [itinerary: Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania, Australia] [exhibition publication]
Every inclusion is an exclusion of other possibilities, SALT Beyoğlu, Istanbul
Future Present: Emanuel Hoffman Foundation. Contemporary Art from Classic Modernism to the Present Day, Schaulager, Basel [catalogue]
The Gap: Selected Abstract Art from Belgium, Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, London [itinerary: Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp]
The Importance of Being…, Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana [itinerary: Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires (MACBA); Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro; Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo; Museo de Art Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Mexico] [two catalogues published in bilingual editions]
In Search of the Miraculous, Newlyn Art Gallery, England
La Répétition, Franche-Comté (FRAC), Besançon, France
Mijn Vlakke Land/My Flat Country: On photography and landscape, FotoMuseum Provincie Antwerpen (FoMu), Antwerp
Nada temas, dice ella. Cuando el arte revela verdades místicas/Fear nothing, she says. When art reveals mystical truths, Museum Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid, Spain [organized in collaboration with Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), Madrid] [catalogue]
Partial Presence, Zabludowicz Collection, London
PICA: Celebrating 20 Years Reflecting on the First Decade, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, Oregon
Poetic Minimalism, Salon Dahlmann, Berlin
The Problem of God, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Rastros y Vestigios: Indagaciones sobre el presente, Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico [catalogue]
(Ready) Media, LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Gijón, Spain
Reliefs - Architecturer L’Horizon/Reliefs - Designing the Horizon, Galerie des Turbulences, Fonds régional d’art contemporain (FRAC) Orléans, France
Risk, Turner Contemporary, Kent, England
Strange Currencies: Art & Action in Mexico City, 1990-2000, Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia [catalogue]
Summer Reading, Peter Freeman, Inc., New York
Terrapolis, Ecole française d’Athènes, Athens (organized by NEON, Athens and Whitechapel Gallery, London) [exhibition brochure]
True Story, Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City
VÍDEO-RÉGIMEN. Coleccionistas en la era audiovisual, Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid
Walkers: Hollywood Afterlives in Art and Artifact, Museum of the Moving Image, Queens, New York [catalogue]
Walking Sculpture 1967-2015, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts [catalogue]
While You Were Out, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2014
Francis Alÿs Selected Exhibitions in 2014:
Francis Alÿs: La acción reveladora o poética de los intentos, Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo, Montevideo (solo exhibition)
Francis Alÿs: REEL-UNREEL, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina Napoli (MADRE), Naples [itinerary: Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw] [catalogue] (solo exhibition)
And I laid traps for troubadours who get killed before they reached Bombay, Clark House Initiative, Bombay, India (organized in collaboration with Kadist Art Foundation, Paris/San Francisco)
Arche Noah. Über Tier und Mensch in der Kunst, Museum Ostwall im Dortmunder U, Dortmund, Germany [exhibition brochure]
Argos Panoptes, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City
Art as a Verb, MONASH University Museum of Art (MUMA), Melbourne [itinerary: Artspace, Sydney] [catalogue]
Beating around the bush Episode #1, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, The Netherlands
Broken. Slapstick, Comedy, and Black Humor - The Goetz Collection at Haus der Kunst, Haus der Kunst, Munich By Proxy, James Cohan Gallery, New York [exhibition brochure]
Cesta, MeetFactory, Prague
De Zee/The Sea: salut d’honneur Jan Hoet, Kunstmuseum aan zee (Mu.ZEE), Ostend, Belgium
Destinations improbables, Le musée lanchelevici, La Louvière, Belgium
The Disappearance of the fireflies, Collection Lambert en Avignon, France [catalogue]
¡Ejemplos a seguir! Expediciones en estética y sostenibilidad, Museo Metropolitano de Lima
Estudio Abierto #4: Máquina del Tiempo, Museo de Arte Zapopan, Guadalajara, Mexico
Fantôme, Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv
Feels Like Heaven, Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
Global Positioning Systems, Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)
Good Night, Mister Procrustes, Galerie Steinek, Vienna
A Guest Without a Host is a Ghost, Beirut and Townhouse, Cairo (organized in collaboration with Kadist Art Foundation, Paris/San Francisco)
Haperende Mens II, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam
Hired Hand, The Art Insitute of Chicago
Impulse, Reason, Sense, Conflict. Abstract Art from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, 7 Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami [catalogue]
In the Near Future. The Collection of The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw
Intenzione manifesta. Il disegno in tutte le sue forme/Manifest Intention. Drawing in All Its Forms, Castello di Rivoli - Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin [catalogue]
A invenção de Praia/The Invention of the Beach, Paço das Artes, São Paulo
Irgendetwas im Raum entzieht sich unseren Versuchen des Überfliegers/Something in Space Escapes Our Attempts at Surveying, Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart [exhibition publication]
Las lágrimas las cosas/The Tears of Things, Centro de Arte Visuales Fundación Helga de Alvear, Cáceres, Spain
Liberdade em movimento/Freedom in movement, Fundação Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Manifesta 10: European Biennial of Contemporary Art, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg [catalogue]
Märk Linjen/Mark the Line, Göteborgs Konsthall, Gothenburg, Sweden [catalogue]
Master Mould and Copy Room, The Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Beijing
Melting Walls: Works from the Igal Ahouvi Art Collection. Babel Trilogy Part 3, The Genia Schreiber University Art Gallery, Tel Aviv University [exhibition publication]
Memórias da Obsolescência: Coleção Ella Fontanals-Cisneros/Memories of Obsolescence: Collection Ella Fontanals-Cisneros, Paço das Artes, São Paulo (organized in collaboration with Museu da Imagem e do Som, São Paulo) [catalogue]
O OLHO DO TIGRE - Obras da Colecção Sarmento, Appleton Square, Lisbon
On what there might not be, MARSO, Mexico City
Propaganda für die Wirklichkeit, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany [catalogue]
REINES WASSER. Die kostbarste Ressource der Welt/PURE WATER. The Most Valuable Resource in the World, LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz, Austria [catalogue]
Secret Passions: Private Flemish Collections, lille3000, Lille, France [catalogue]
Somos Libres II: Works from the Mario Testino Collection, Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Turin [catalogue]
This secret world that exists right there in public, RAMPA Istanbul
Treasures of the Tamayo Museum, Mexico City, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
Unbound: Contemporary Art After Frida Kahlo, Museum of Contemproary Art Chicago
Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York [catalogue]
Unendlicher Spaß/Infinite Jest, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt [catalogue]
Unstable Places: New in Contemporary Art, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Variation. Lo obsesivo como forma de paisaje en la Colección Fundación Arco/The Obsessive as a Form of Landscape in the ARCO Foundation Collection, Centro de Arte Alcobendas, Madrid
Video: Action, Language, A Window in Berlin
Watch Me Move. Un viaje por la animación, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO), Mexico (organized by Barbican Centre, London)
Zero Tolerance, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York
2013
“México: Inside Out”, Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth, Texas, US, cur. Andrea Karnes, Sept. 15 – Jan. 05
“Fabiola”, Pinacoteca, Sao Paolo, Brazil, cur. Lynne Cooke, May – July
“Sharjah Biennial 11”, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, March
“Fabiola”, Fundacao Eva Klabin, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, cur. Lynne Cooke, Feb. – April

Public Collections

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico
Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) - Fundación Costantini, Buenos Aires
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City
Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona
Museum für Moderner Kunst, Frankfurt
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Literature

2011
“3. Thessaloniki biennale of contemporary art”, Paolo Colombo, Mahita El Bacha Urieta, Marina Fokidis, Thessaloniki, Greece, pp. 182 – 182
“Once Upon a Time”, Guggenheim Museum Publications, New York, Egl. / German, pp. 14 – 16
“Francis Alÿs: Fabiola”, Lynne Cooke, Dario Libero Gamboni, Schaulager, Basel, Schwabe Verlag, Basel, ex. cat.
“Francis Alÿs: Le Temps du Sommeil”, Catherine Lampert, Irish Museum of Art, Dublin, Ireland
“Francis Alÿs: Sign Painting Project”. Ed. Theodora Vischer, Schaulager, Basel, Steidl, Göttingen, cat. raisonné
There is always a cup of sea to sail, 29th Bienal de Sao Paolo, pp. 336 - 338, ex. cat.
Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception, ed. Mark Godfrey, Klaus Biesenbach, Kerryn Greenberg, Tate Publishing, London, ex. cat.
Francis Alÿs: Le Temps du Sommeil, Catherine Lampert, Irish Museum of Art, Dublin, Ireland
“Francis Alÿs: In a given Situation”, texts by Alfonso Reyes, Cuauhtémoc Medina, Ton Marar, publ. by Cosac Naify, Sao Paulo, 29th Sao Paolo Biennale, Sao Paulo, Brasil, ex. cat.
2010
“There is always a cup of sea to sail”, 29th Bienal de Sao Paolo, Sao Paolo, pp. 336 – 338, ex. cat.
“Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception”, Ed. Mark Godfrey, Klaus Biesenbach, Kerryn Greenberg, Tate Publishing, London, ex. cat.
2009
Waiting for Video: Works from the 1960s to Today, ed. Kenjin Miwa, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan, pp. 156 - 157, ex. cat.
English (US)

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