Francis Al每s: A Story of Deception at The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 opens on 8 May, drawing upon MoMA鈥檚 unique and important collection of work by Belgian artist Francis Al每s (b. 1959), who uses poetic and allegorical methods to explore the social realities of political concepts, including the cyclical nature of change in modernizing societies, the urban landscape, and patterns of economic progress. Al每s鈥檚 personal, ambulatory explorations of cities form the basis for his practice, through which he compiles extensive documentation reflecting his process, producing complex and diverse bodies of work that include video, painting, performance, drawing, and photography. Organized in collaboration with Al每s, this exhibition is conceptually grouped around three major recent acquisitions鈥 Re-enactments (2001), When Faith Moves Mountains (2002), and Rehearsal I (Ensayo I) (1999鈥2001)鈥 each on view for the first time at the Museum. Using the mechanics of rehearsal and re-enactment in urban environments, Al每s comments on the politics of public space with both solitary actions and large-scale collaborations, where the culmination of many small acts achieves mythic proportions.
Francis Al每s studied architecture in Tournai and Venice before moving to Mexico City in 1986, where he has lived since. While this displacement has provided him with a unique vantage point on the country, Al每s鈥檚 awareness of his outsider status is reflected in several of his projects. Al每s鈥檚 works frequently begin with an action performed or initiated by him that can be witnessed in real time but also discovered through its documentation after the event. Large-scale installations such as Re-enactments, When Faith Moves Mountains, and Rehearsal I (Ensayo I) contain each of these aspects: the conceptualization and planning of the piece and action, the action itself, the distillation of the action, the video documentation, and the related materials.
In 2001 in Mexico City, Al每s performed Re-enactments, for which he purchased a 9mm Beretta handgun and proceeded to wander around the city鈥檚 downtown with the loaded gun in hand. After 11 minutes of walking, Al每s was detained by the police and eventually released. With the cooperation of the Mexican authorities Al每s re-enacted the very same scene one day later. Within MoMA鈥檚 galleries, a two-channel video of the original action and its re-enactment are projected side by side, while related drawings, maps, newspaper clippings, and photographs accompany the videos. The video presentation of the action alongside its re-enactment underscores the ambiguities between reality and fiction, while anticipating the way public safety came to dominate the social and political debate within Mexico during the first decade of the 21st century.
For When Faith Moves Mountains, 500 volunteers in Lima, Peru, were equipped with shovels and asked to displace a 550-yard-long sand dune, moving it four inches from its original location. This work 鈥 Al每s鈥檚 contribution to the 2002 Lima Biennale, stages a collective exercise in futility in which hundreds of people attempt to move a mountain. The work raises questions about the outcomes of social actions, highlighting how substantial efforts can be out of proportion with the gains achieved. MoMA鈥檚 installation includes videos of the action, drawings, maps, and storyboards.
For Rehearsal I (Ensayo I), Al每s staged a scene in which the driver of a Volkswagen Beetle repeatedly attempted in vain to scale a dusty slope on the outskirts of Tijuana. The driver listened to a tape recording of a musical rehearsal by a Mexican brass band and mimicked the recording, starting and stopping as the band did. The installation includes several videos, paintings, and drawings. Eight other bodies of work are also on view at MoMA, including Tornado (2000鈥10), which was acquired by the Museum in 2011. For Tornado, Al每s visited the highlands south of Mexico City throughout the past decade in a repeated effort to chase the whirling dust storms that occur annually in the region. With camera in hand, the artist attempted again and again to run directly into a tornado to penetrate the eye of the storm. Culled from footage recorded over a period of 10 years, the video symbolically combines the sublime with the unattainable and can be considered a metaphor for failed pursuits of utopian ideals, and man鈥檚 repeated attempts to persist despite inevitable consequences.
Challenging the powers of nature in a perplexing one-on-one confrontation, Al每s recognizes human persistence and emphasizes the necessity to pursue ideals however unattainable or seemingly absurd. For Song for Lupita (1998), the artist has created an installation in which a film strip loops continuously through a reel that extends up to the ceiling, projecting an animated pencil drawing of a young female character pouring a liquid from one glass to another in an endless and poetic gesture. Paradox of Praxis I (Sometimes Doing Something Leads to Nothing) (1997), a five鈥搈inute video showing Al每s pushing a block of ice through the center of Mexico City until nothing but a small puddle of water remained, is an allusion to the hardship involved in the daily survival tactics of many people in the region. Le Temps du Sommeil (1996鈥昿resent) is an ongoing series composed of more than 100 small canvases of approximately 4.3 x 6鈥 each, which Al每s continues to rework as a sort of evolving record of visual ideas that develop out of actions or precede them.
Francis Al每s: A Story of Deception expands to MoMA PS1 with a series of works that highlights the artist鈥檚 engagement with cities around the globe, from London to New York to Venice. These projects, which include The Modern Procession (2002), Guards (2004), and Duett (1999), reveal the sense of disconnection, fragmentation, and displacement often present in large cities, and also playfully attempt to overcome such disjunctions. A Story of Deception (2003鈥06), a 16mm film depicting a mirage looming on the horizon in Patagonia, representing that which is continually sought after yet inevitably out of reach, is also on view.
The Modern Procession was commissioned by MoMA to mark the Museum鈥檚 temporary relocation to Queens (2002鈥04) while its midtown building was undergoing a renovation and expansion. Through video, photographs, and drawings, the installation documents a ceremonial procession that occurred on June 23, 2002, in which Al每s, musicians, and various participants traveled from MoMA to MoMA QNS, carrying the artist Kiki Smith on a palanquin and representations of works in the Museum鈥檚 collection, including works by Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, and Alberto Giacometti. On view is a two-channel video of the event, along with numerous archival materials related to it. The procession not only made the historic transition public and visible, but linked Manhattan and Queens through ceremony and spectacle. Guards includes a single-channel video in which Al每s orchestrated the movements of 64 Royal Guards who entered The City of London by different streets, unaware of each other鈥檚 location. Upon running into each other, the guards would fall into step and march together, looking for more guards with which to join. Standing as a social allegory, the work reflects the tendency of individuals to seek identity in group formations.
For the 1999 Venice Biennale, Al每s created an unofficial performance for the occasion, titled Duett. The piece begins with Al每s entering Venice by train while fellow Belgian artist Honor茅 d鈥橭 landed at the airport, and each man is carrying one half of a tuba. After drifting through the labyrinth of streets, they eventually met three days later and reassembled the musical instrument. The work is emblematic of Al每s鈥檚 exploration of estranged or misplaced halves striving for reconciliation. At MoMA PS1, Duett is displayed as a single-channel video along with photographic documentation and ephemera related to the performance.
Francis Al每s: A Story of Deception opens May 8 and continues until August 1. For further information please visit:
Image:
Francis Al每s
Re-enactments (2001)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
漏 Francis Al每s
