Francis Alys. The Nature of the Game

Childrens Games is a series of works by artist Francis Alÿs that document the distinctive ways in which children interact with each other and their physical environment. This volume provides a multidisciplinary perspective to the many layers of the project, including an interview with Francis Alÿs and Rafael Ortega, essays by well-known scholars and art critics, curatorial statements, and a logbook related to the presentation of Childrens Games at the Venice Biennale of 2022.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 176 pages
Publication date: 18 September 2023
Publisher: Leuven University Press

Children's Games, a series of works by artist Francis Alÿs, began with a short video of a solitary boy kicking an empty bottle up a hill in Mexico City in 1999. Since then, the ongoing project has grown to encompass around thirty-five works, documenting the distinctive ways in which children interact with each other and their physical environment. Over the past twenty-five years, Alÿs and his collaborators, Félix Blume, Julien Devaux, and Rafael Ortega, have traveled extensively to various parts of the world, including remote villages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela, and Nepal, as well as the mountains of Switzerland and metropoles like Hong Kong and Paris. They have also visited war-torn cities like Mosul in Iraq, the border between Mexico and the United States, and the strait of Gibraltar that divides Africa and Europe. The resulting images serve as powerful evidence of the seriousness of play and the remarkable resilience of children in the face of conflict.

This comprehensive volume offers a multidisciplinary exploration of Children's Games. It includes an interview with Francis Alÿs and Rafael Ortega, along with a series of essays by renowned scholars and art critics. Curatorial statements and a logbook related to the presentation of Children's Games at the Venice Biennale of 2022 are also included. Contributors to the volume include Francis Alÿs (the artist), Gerard-Jan Claes (filmmaker and artistic director of Sabzian), Tim Ingold (anthropologist at the University of Aberdeen), Zeynep Kubat (art historian, curator, and writer), Karen Lang (art historian at the Royal Society of Arts), and Rafael Ortega (artist).

Through their diverse contributions, the book provides a deep understanding of the complexities and significance of Children's Games, shedding light on the artist's creative process, the cultural contexts in which the works were created, and the enduring impact they have had on audiences worldwide.

Weight: 495g
Dimension: 230 x 170 x 10 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9789462703841