FRANCIS ALŸS
REEL-UNREEL
(Afghan Projects, 2010-2014)
Curator Ewa Gorządek
The Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle
ul. Jazdów 2 - Warsaw 10/10/2014 - 11/1/2015
The exhibition REEL-UNREEL (Afghan Projects, 2010-2014) is the first individual presentation of work from artist Francis Alÿs (born 1959) in Poland. The project has been implemented in cooperation with the Madre Museum in Naples and focuses on the artist’s most recent work, which was realized during his multiple visits to Afghanistan between 2010-2014. The titled video work REEL-UNREEL will be shown alongside an extensive selection of paintings, drawings, collages, sketches, documents and ephemeral objects all comprising "Afghan Projects". They form a kind of archive similar to a journal you would keep when traveling. Being shown in conjunction to the two earlier works, are some of the artist’s most iconic works: "Paradox of Praxis 1 (Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing)" and "Green Line", in which Francis Alӱs enters into a dialogue with the modernist tradition of the medium of sculpture and painting.
REEL-UNREEL, a film produced in 2011 under dOCUMENTA (13), is the exhibition’s main work, and is coincidingly the artist's statement about the art of film, a kind of tribute to analogue film. On the one hand, the title refers to the narrative presented in it, and on the other hand, to the phenomenon that the medium of film itself is, with reeling and coiling the tape on a projector. Considering the title, Alӱs uses a kind of play on words in it: reel/real and unreel/unreal, to emphasize a far from reality picture that the Western media created about modern Afghanistan.
Francis Alÿs is an author of formally diversified works - from installations to video works, paintings, drawings, objects, as well as photography. He is one of the most important contemporary artists today, widely known throughout the world for his performative actions documented on video, penetrating into the social and political models of urban environments. The artist employs non-traditional creative methods to create his works, this includes obsessively walking around the city, by which he is able to individualize the notion of public space, or revealing the tension between that which is political and that which is poetic. Francis Alÿs uses the medium of performance to interpret the relationship between political, social, and cultural matters in contemporary society.
Francis Alÿs (b. 1959, Antwerp, Belgium) – he has been living and working in Mexico City since 1986. A retrospective exhibition of the artist ("Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception") was organized between 2010-2011 by Tate Modern, London; Wiels Centre d'Art Contemporain, Brussels; MoMA-Museum of Modern Art, New York and MoMA-PS1, Long Island City, New York. Alÿs has also had many solo exhibitions in such prestigious institutions as the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2010); The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (2008); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2007); Hirshhorn Museum-Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (2006); Portikus, Frankfurt (2006); MALBA, Buenos Aires (2006); Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; Musee d'Art Contemporain, Avignon (2004); Kunsthaus, Zurich (2003); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (2003). In 2012, on the occasion of Documenta (13), the artist presented his film REEL-UNREEL in the ruins of the Behzad Cinema in Kabul; the artist received special permission to screen his film at the cinema just for this occasion. The film composes the main part of the exhibition at the CCA Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw. Alÿs also participated in many international art biennales, including the Bienal de São Paulo (2010, 2004 and 1998), Venice Biennale (2007, 2001 and 1999), Shanghai Biennale (2002), Istanbul Biennial (2001 and 1999), and the Havana Biennial (2000 and 1994).
In collaboration with Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina-MADRE, Naples
REEL-UNREEL
(Afghan Projects, 2010-2014)
Curator Ewa Gorządek
The Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle
ul. Jazdów 2 - Warsaw 10/10/2014 - 11/1/2015
The exhibition REEL-UNREEL (Afghan Projects, 2010-2014) is the first individual presentation of work from artist Francis Alÿs (born 1959) in Poland. The project has been implemented in cooperation with the Madre Museum in Naples and focuses on the artist’s most recent work, which was realized during his multiple visits to Afghanistan between 2010-2014. The titled video work REEL-UNREEL will be shown alongside an extensive selection of paintings, drawings, collages, sketches, documents and ephemeral objects all comprising "Afghan Projects". They form a kind of archive similar to a journal you would keep when traveling. Being shown in conjunction to the two earlier works, are some of the artist’s most iconic works: "Paradox of Praxis 1 (Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing)" and "Green Line", in which Francis Alӱs enters into a dialogue with the modernist tradition of the medium of sculpture and painting.
REEL-UNREEL, a film produced in 2011 under dOCUMENTA (13), is the exhibition’s main work, and is coincidingly the artist's statement about the art of film, a kind of tribute to analogue film. On the one hand, the title refers to the narrative presented in it, and on the other hand, to the phenomenon that the medium of film itself is, with reeling and coiling the tape on a projector. Considering the title, Alӱs uses a kind of play on words in it: reel/real and unreel/unreal, to emphasize a far from reality picture that the Western media created about modern Afghanistan.
Francis Alÿs is an author of formally diversified works - from installations to video works, paintings, drawings, objects, as well as photography. He is one of the most important contemporary artists today, widely known throughout the world for his performative actions documented on video, penetrating into the social and political models of urban environments. The artist employs non-traditional creative methods to create his works, this includes obsessively walking around the city, by which he is able to individualize the notion of public space, or revealing the tension between that which is political and that which is poetic. Francis Alÿs uses the medium of performance to interpret the relationship between political, social, and cultural matters in contemporary society.
Francis Alÿs (b. 1959, Antwerp, Belgium) – he has been living and working in Mexico City since 1986. A retrospective exhibition of the artist ("Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception") was organized between 2010-2011 by Tate Modern, London; Wiels Centre d'Art Contemporain, Brussels; MoMA-Museum of Modern Art, New York and MoMA-PS1, Long Island City, New York. Alÿs has also had many solo exhibitions in such prestigious institutions as the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2010); The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (2008); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2007); Hirshhorn Museum-Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (2006); Portikus, Frankfurt (2006); MALBA, Buenos Aires (2006); Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; Musee d'Art Contemporain, Avignon (2004); Kunsthaus, Zurich (2003); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (2003). In 2012, on the occasion of Documenta (13), the artist presented his film REEL-UNREEL in the ruins of the Behzad Cinema in Kabul; the artist received special permission to screen his film at the cinema just for this occasion. The film composes the main part of the exhibition at the CCA Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw. Alÿs also participated in many international art biennales, including the Bienal de São Paulo (2010, 2004 and 1998), Venice Biennale (2007, 2001 and 1999), Shanghai Biennale (2002), Istanbul Biennial (2001 and 1999), and the Havana Biennial (2000 and 1994).
In collaboration with Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina-MADRE, Naples
