Francis Alÿs

Trained as an architect and urbanist, Francis Alÿs moved to Mexico in 1986 to work with local NGO's. In 1990 he entered the field of visual arts. His practice embraces multiple media, from painting and drawing to video and photography. Although his studio is based in Mexico City, he has done over the last 20 years numerous projects in collaboration with local communities around the world, from South America to North Africa and Middle East. For example, in Peru he produced an event where 500 volunteers moved a sand dune just a few centimeters ("When Faith Moves Mountains", Lima, 2002). Since 2016 he has been engaged in a series of new projects in Iraq, such as "Hopscotch" (2016), produced in collaboration with the Yazidi Refugee Camp of Sharya, Duhok, Iraq, or "Color Matching" (2016), filmed while being embedded with a Peshmerga Battalion during the siege of Mosul. He is presently completing the feature film "Sandlines" filmed in 2018-19 in collaboration with the children of a small mountain village of the Nineveh province. Francis Alÿs has had solo exhibitions in museums worldwide, such as the Rockbund Art Museum (RAM), Shanghai, 2018; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 2018; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 2017; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de la Habana, Havana, 2016; Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, 2015; documenta (13), Kassel, Germany, and Kabul, Afghanistan; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 2013; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, 2011; Tate Modern, London, 2010; Bass Museum of Art, Miami, 2009; Dia Art Foundation, New York, 2007; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2007; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 2005; Museu d'Art Contemporani, Barcelona, 2005; Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2003; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, 1997, among others. He was awarded the Blue Orange prize in 2004, Vincent Award in 2008, BACA-laureate prize in 2010, and the EYE Art & Film Prize from EYE Filmmuseum in 2018.