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Francis Alÿs
1959, Antwerpen - Mexico
Francis Alÿs, who was born in Antwerp, trained there as an architect and then exchanged Belgium for Mexico City. The individual and the urban environment are recurring themes in his work. Every day, Alÿs crosses the city and dives into everyday rituals and customs of the life in a metropolis. In his poetic films, videos, photos of performances, paintings and drawings, he charts the city and interweaves it subtly with his own life and undertakings.
In Guards, a subversive twist is given to a typical London tourist phenomenon; the Changing of the Guard. What begins as one guard marching through the empty streets ends in the strangely beautiful choreography of a ritual display of power, accompanied by the hypnotic cadence of stamping boots. Guards is one of the films from the series Seven Walks, which was created on commission from the London art centre, Artangel. Alÿs purposely used the positions of the city’s CCTV cameras for the filming. ‘Apparently, the average Londoner is filmed around 300 times a day’, said Alÿs. ‘That fact alone says something about the relationship people in London have with public spaces’.
The video Shoeshine and the sketches and tin soldiers displayed in the adjacent room complete the work of Alÿs in the museum’s collection. Shoeshine, shown this time on a simple monitor, documents the preparations of one of the guards before he appears in public.
Francis Alÿs
1959, Antwerpen - Mexico
Francis Alÿs, who was born in Antwerp, trained there as an architect and then exchanged Belgium for Mexico City. The individual and the urban environment are recurring themes in his work. Every day, Alÿs crosses the city and dives into everyday rituals and customs of the life in a metropolis. In his poetic films, videos, photos of performances, paintings and drawings, he charts the city and interweaves it subtly with his own life and undertakings.
In Guards, a subversive twist is given to a typical London tourist phenomenon; the Changing of the Guard. What begins as one guard marching through the empty streets ends in the strangely beautiful choreography of a ritual display of power, accompanied by the hypnotic cadence of stamping boots. Guards is one of the films from the series Seven Walks, which was created on commission from the London art centre, Artangel. Alÿs purposely used the positions of the city’s CCTV cameras for the filming. ‘Apparently, the average Londoner is filmed around 300 times a day’, said Alÿs. ‘That fact alone says something about the relationship people in London have with public spaces’.
The video Shoeshine and the sketches and tin soldiers displayed in the adjacent room complete the work of Alÿs in the museum’s collection. Shoeshine, shown this time on a simple monitor, documents the preparations of one of the guards before he appears in public.
Images
Collection Bonnefantenmuseum
Guards, 2004
Shoeshine, 2004
Guards, 2004
Shoeshine, 2004