artnexus #35

Francis Alÿs, who was born in Belgium, has lived in Mexico for several years. If one word could characterize his work, it would be "walking"—an action in which he combines his original references (for example to the work of Magritte) with everyday Mexican life. Walking is a kind of thread not only involving the notion of time and place but also the underlying basis of his creative process. The artist's observations of the city, of the people passing along its streets, are the means whereby Alÿs, through his images, questions the concept of a unique work with an identifiable author. His working method involves the use of references seen through the imitation Alÿs himself has done together with the work of those who make commercial posters and signs that "imitate" the work of the artist, who in his turn has been inspired by his own references.

As Alÿs himself has pointed out: "I have used the style (and to some extent the main figure) of the street advertisements painted on plates in the workshops of the sign writers in Mexico City...Over time, some of the copies have been based on reproductions already done by other sign writers. Furthermore, once the structure of the scene had been assimilated, little attention was paid to the model... The process has thus gradually moved away from its original illustrative intention. The act of copying becomes increasingly predominant so that now it no longer matters if you are looking at the model, the copy, or the copy of a copy..."

The pictures of Francis Alÿs call into question our traditional idea of a work of art and place confronting the spectator with the idea of a simulacrum.

IVONNE PINI