Trained as an architect, Francis Alÿs has constantly teased the political from the poetic gesture, and turned failure into a language. The medium of walking as art practice stems from the Situationist practice of derive, and Alÿs has used this process to draw out larger questions of spatial and ideological boundaries. The Green Line, 2007, saw him walk the boundary between Israel and Palestine, a literal enacting of territorial division. Other works have seen him chasing tornadoes, shifting mountains and pushing a block of ice around until it melted into nothing.
Read MoreAlÿs is one of the most influential performance artists of today, and has held solo exhibitions at MoMA, New York, 2011; the Tate Modern, London, 2010; Wiels, Brussels, 2010; Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, 2004; and the Museo Reina Sophia, Madrid, 2002. He has also participated in the Venice Biennale, 2007, 2001, 1999; the Sao Paulo Bienial, 2010, 1998; and Documenta 13, 2012.
Ocula Conversation RoseLee Goldberg: Performance Then and Now By Fawz Kabra RoseLee Goldberg had long been invested in contemporary performance art before her founding of the inter-disciplinary arts organisation Performa in New York in 2004. Born in Durban, South Africa, Goldberg studied political science and fine arts at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and then art history at the Courtauld...
Ocula Feature TarraWarra International 2019: Tracing Tangible Shadows By Natalie King, Melbourne Everyone I encounter along my journey asks: 'Where are you based?' 'On my feet,' I answer. 'Where are your feet based then?' 'Feet are never based,' I say. This haunting voiceover from Hiwa K 's video, Pre-Image (Blind as the Mother Tongue) (2017), follows the artist retracing a journey that he made when he was 25 years old, fleeing Iraq...
Ocula Feature Shanghai Art Exhibitions to See: The Lowdown By Sam Gaskin There is no official Shanghai Art Week, but the term has nevertheless entered the lexicon of the city's contemporary art community. It's especially apt this year, with the firmly established West Bund Art Fair (8–11 November 2018) and Art021 (9–11 November 2018) taking place the same week that the 12th Shanghai Biennale opens at the Power Station...
Ocula Feature Gwangju Biennale: Imagined Borders By Tessa Moldan, Gwangju 'I have felt persecuted for weeks by this same asphyxiating dream.' So narrates the forlorn Portuguese speaker in Kiluanji Kia Henda's film, Concrete Affection – Zopo Lady (2014), as city scenes and modernist buildings in Luanda flit past the camera's lens. The narration is pulled from Another Day of Life (1971), Polish writer Ryszard...
Related Press 10 Highlights from the inaugural Kathmandu Triennale 2017 10 April 2017, Art Radar Journal The Kathmandu Triennale is an event developed on the back of past success of the Kathmandu International Art Festival, held in 2009 and 2012. The inaugural edition of Kathmandu Triennale (KT 2017) takes ‘The City’ as a thematic starting point – a catalyst to explore the many socio-cultural and political issues embedded in urban settings. Francis...
Related Press Francis Alÿs to create new work inspired by his frontline experiences in Mosul 7 December 2016, The Art Newspaper The Belgian artist Francis Alÿs will create a new work for the Iraqi pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale next year (13 May-26 November 2017) based on his recent experiences spent on the frontline in Mosul, northern Iraq, as part of the ongoing military offensive against Islamic state (Isil) militants. The piece was commissioned by the Ruya...
Related Press Francis Alÿs at David Zwirner, London 1 December 2016, Art in America 'When the operative system of a society collapses, can art bring about an alternative way of thinking... ?' Francis Alÿs wrote this question on a notebook page reproduced in the brochure accompanying Ciudad Juárez Projects, his powerful exhibition at David Zwirner in London. For the works on view, Alÿs brought his poetic sensibility to...
Related Press Here are the artists in the 2016 Taipei Biennial 8 July 2016, ARTNews The Taipei Fine Arts Museum has announced the artists tapped for their 2016 Taipei Biennial, which takes place from September 10 this year through February 5 of 2017. Now in its tenth edition, the biennial this year takes on themes related to artistic and curatorial practices, and as per press release, 'embraces the catalytic role of museums in...
