The Distance Between: The Political Peregrinations of Fancis Alys
Modern Painters, Mar. 2007, pp. 84-89
This article describe how Francis Alys art suggests both in the actions and in a semi-documentary way a condition of betweenness, an examination of specific distance and the consequences and implications of going that distance. His work also questions how authorship of an object is magnetized to the course of its journey. Collective determinations, urban myths with social implications are within his art discourse and are reflected in works such as: Zocalo and When Faith Moves Mountains. This last project marked a shift in Alys practices and he says "I could no longer hide behind the ambiguity of metaphors or poetic license". Then in 2004 he went to Palestine and reenacted The Leak, carrying a dribbling paint tin while walking, allowing it to leave an uninterrupted trail behind him.
In 2006 he arranged for two lines of fishing boats one in La Havana the other in Florida's Key West, to line up and face each other across the seemingly unbridgeable ocean.
ITEM 2007.060 – available for viewing in the Research Centre
Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited
paseos – Francis Alys
The Collector – Francis Alys
Paradox of Praxis – Francis Alys
Narcotourism – Francis Alys
The Leak – Francis Alys
Re-Enactments – Francis Alys
Zocalo – Francis Alys
When Faith Moves Mountains – Francis Alys
Francis Alys
The Leak
Bridge-Puente
Self Portraits Made by Others