Reports    Published 21/06/10

Francis Alÿs

A Story of Deception

Tate Modern, London 
15 June–5 September 2010

By MK PALOMAR

Poetic gestures and mythical acts

As curator Mark Godfrey guides us through Francis Al˙s’s exhibition at Tate Modern he tells us, “you have to ask what kind of meaning a poetic act might have in a highly charged political situation”. While taking no moral high ground, without ridicule or malice, Al˙s clears convoluted rhetoric from urgent contemporary concerns, the magic of Al˙s’s work lies in his combining praxis with trickster and in this way his subversive actions dance in the face of governments. Jean Fisher, in conversation with Al˙s, documented as part of The Green Line (2004), (dripped paint along Moshe Dayan’s 1948 armistice border between Israel and Jordan), wonders “how can one think of art as political without falling into activism ...” Fisher decides that, “it’s got to derive from the poetic gesture the moment in which a gesture illuminates gives you an insight into a political thought”.

Trained as an architect in 1986, Belgian born Alÿs moved to Mexico City to work on regeneration projects after the earthquake of 1985. From his studio he made works responding to everyday life in the city. Walking is central to Alÿs’s practice, whether pulling magnets that attract the metal detritus off the street (The Collectors 1990–2), pushing a block of ice until it melts to nothing (Paradox of Praxis 1997), or leading a flock of sheep round a flag pole (Patriotic Tales 1997), his actions reference the frustrations and political difficulties of South American life.