Frontiers, territory, and their relationship with war are central notions in the work of Belgian-born, Mexico-based artist Francis Alÿs. In 2013 he frequented the British troops in Helmand province, Afghanistan, as an ‘embedded’ artist on the front. He repeated this experience in 2016, this time alongside the Peshmerga fighters who were attempting to retake Mosul from ISIS, a battle described by the artist as a hill moving slowly into the outskirts of the city.  

His installation ‘Geographies’ consists of a collection of small-format paintings which depict fragments of military maps. They show lands separated into two zones of different colours, green and yellow, in addition to which a blue surface can be understood as a maritime zone. Each zone bears a word that is an antagonist to the other, creating a dialectic couple, such as Unknown/Known, Us/Them and Leave/Return. These oppositions show how conflicts till today structure the geopolitical realities that shape countries. It is a way to underline that the psychical limits of nations should still be considered abstractions. 

Interviewed at the time of the project in 2018, Alÿs stated: ‘I was reading that we all thought 1989 was ‘the end of the wall’. But apparently, way more walls have been built since 1989 than before. It’s not an abstract concept. Borders are more and more in our lives. And I think it will get worse.’ 

Courtesy FENIX Collective, Rotterdam

Born in Antwerp, Belgium, Alÿs originally trained as an architect. He moved to Mexico City in 1986, where he continues to live and work, and it was the confrontation with issues of urbanization and social unrest in his new country of adoption that inspired his decision to become a visual artist. Since 2004, the artist’s work has been represented by David Zwirner, where he has had two solo exhibitions at the gallery’s New York location in 2007 and 2013. In 2016, Ciudad Juárez projects marked his first solo presentation at David Zwirner, London, and in 2021, the solo exhibition Don’t Cross the Bridge Before You Get to the River was on view at the gallery’s Paris location.

Alÿs was the recipient of the 2023 Wolfgang Hahn Prize, awarded by the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, and he will receive a solo exhibition at the museum in November 2023. Francis Alÿs: Children’s Games, 1999-2022, was on view at the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, earlier in the same year. A solo exhibition of the artist’s work was on view at Copenhagen Contemporary from 2022 to 2023.