Francis Alÿs "A Story of Deception"
The Museum of Modern Art
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Francis Alÿs (Belgian, b. 1959) uses poetic and allegorical methods to address social and political issues, such as national borders, localism and globalism, areas of conflict and community, and the benefits and detriments of progress. The artist's personal, ambulatory explorations of cities—documented extensively in a variety of mediums—form the basis of his practice, which in the past decade has produced a complex and diverse body of work encompassing video, painting, performance, drawing, and photography. This exhibition draws on MoMA's extensive collection of Alÿs’s work, including three recently acquired bodies of work— "Re-enactments" (2001), "When Faith Moves Mountains" (2002), and "Rehearsal I (Ensayo I)" (1999–2001)— that investigate methods of social action, from performances in urban environments to large-scale communal actions in which the sum of many small gestures achieves mythic proportions. Also on view is the artist's most recent video, "Tornado" (2000–10), a striking record of a performance in which the artist chased tornadoes on the dusty outskirts of Mexico City. Filmed over the course of a decade, the video reveals an artist challenging the raw forces of nature, offering a compelling metaphor for the human quest for meaning.
[Image: Francis Alÿs (in collaboration with Julien Devaux) "Tornado" (2000–10) Video (color, sound) 39 min. The Museum of Modern Art. © 2011 Francis Alÿs]
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Schedule
from May 08, 2011 to August 01, 2011