FILM REVIEW: THE NATURE OF THE GAME
Children’s Game #15: Espejos, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, 2013, 4’53”, In collaboration with Félix Blume and Julien Devaux. ©Francis Alys, Courtesy Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Jan Mot and David Zwirner Gallery.
Written by Megan May Walsh
Edited by Jana Massoud
Artist Francis Alÿs, for the 59th International Venice Biennale with curator Hilde Teerlinck, developed an exhibition project titled The Nature of the Game. The exhibition features a selection of films and a series of paintings that primarily depict young people at play. Since 1999, Alÿs has captured children playing in public spaces across his travels in Afghanistan, Belgium, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Hong Kong, Mexico and Switzerland. For Alÿs, filming children playing is a powerful act of capturing the simple moments when the stakes are low of learning to understand and navigate the greater social and cultural codes of human interaction.
©Francis Alÿs, The Nature of the Game. Photograph by Roberto Ruiz.
Francis Alÿs' films pose the critical questions: Is the language of children's play universal? Is the nature of the child's game outside the socio-political realm of adulthood and greater society? Or do gender roles, class status, and race perform amidst the playful performances of childhood games? These are the questions viewers are prompted to consider as the artist brings them on an observational visual journey through places like Mexico City or Tangier or Iraq's Sharya Refugee Camp where children are found skipping stones, dancing, playing hopscotch, bickering, and laughing.
Children’s Game #10: Papalote, Balkh, Afghanistan, 2011, 4’13”, In collaboration with Félix Blume and Elena Pardo. ©Francis Alys, Courtesy Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Jan Mot and David Zwirner Gallery.
Alÿs positions his camera upon playful children outside the West, capturing intimate footage of the politics of play. The children are having fun in the shots and at moments seem to be enjoying the attention of the camera. They are often playing and beaming with unfiltered joy against a backdrop of hardship and violence - whether it's a war-torn landscape or economically destabled country. Fascinated by the endless negotiations and creativity of child's play paralleled with societal conflict, Alÿs aims to examine the world building potentials of childhood games.
©Francis Alÿs, The Nature of the Game. Photograph by Roberto Ruiz.
Playing as children is where we grasp the multitude of human interaction. We build friendships. We laugh. We cry. We leap. We fall. We discover pieces of ourselves. However, unlike the adult world of human interaction in the workforce, home life, or greater politics, childhood play lacks boundaries and rigid rules. It is creative, dynamic, and constantly evolving.
Viewing The Nature of the Game offers a vision of beauty in the simple and creative things of life. Through artistry it brings a measure of meaning to the absurdity of childhood games. It allows us to witness the magical, whimsical, and often unexplainable world building that happens every day in a child's skip, a girl's laughter, and a boy's dance.
Children’s Game #29, Nzango (ratio 4:3) Tabacongo, DRCongo 2021 . 5'41"in collaboration with Rafael Ortega, Julien Devaux and Felix Blume. ©Francis Alys, Courtesy Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Jan Mot and David Zwirner Gallery.
Artist Francis Alÿs and curator Hilde Teerlinck were invited for the 59th International Venice Biennale, the Belgian Pavilion (Flanders) to develop an exhibition. The Nature of the Game, an exhibition of films and a series of paintings will be on view at the gallery in Venice, Italy from April 23rd to November 27th, 2022. For more information on the exhibition, please click here.
