Author Description

Exhibition of the production of an emblematic artist of the national and international contemporary scene. Since 1999, Alÿs has been producing videos that document the games that children play on the street and in courtyards around the world. Children's Games is an ongoing archive of urban practices that modernization has been banishing from everyday life as the concept of public space is distorted by the domination of motor vehicles and free time by electronic diversions. Many of these videos have been shot in relatively economically underdeveloped regions of the world, where the strength of tradition and community have allowed the shared life of a childhood on the street to survive. While they frequently have a direct value as ethnographic documentation, they also metaphorically record transformations and conflicts in contemporary societies. But both in the mysterious way in which certain games are played practically identically in extremely different societies, as well as in their human value, they also become a signifying mechanism that unites a variety of cultures and ways of life. "Some time ago, Francis Alÿs told me that Children's Games was one of his favorite projects: Sometimes I think that the only way I should spend my time is by finishing this series.ʺ After all, it was becoming increasingly difficult to find these games being played in contemporary cities and societies." --Page 17.