Francis Alÿs

Description

Though primarily based in Mexico, Belgian artist Francis Alÿs (b. 1959) is a compulsive wanderer. Gaining international attention in the late 1990s, the works of Francis Alÿs (pronounced ‘ah-leece’) are based on his walks in various locations all over the world. Whether tracing the meandering Green Line in Jerusalem, interceding in the drift of the sand dunes outside in Lima, Peru, or documenting the varieties of people carting their wares around Mexico City, Alÿs examines current socio-political situations in specific urban sites, weaving his own fables into the tangled social fabric via performances, postcards, paintings, sketches, ‘tourist’ videos and a variety of other innovative media.

Francis Alÿs is represented by David Zwirner Gallery, 525 W 19th Street, New York 10011, susan@davidzwirner.com and Lisson Gallery, 52-54 Bell Street, London NW1 5DA, contact@lisson.co.uk

Russell Ferguson is Chairman of the Department of Art at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Adjunct Curator at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, where he has organized the exhibitions ‘Wolfgang Tillmans’ (2006), ‘The Undiscovered Country’ (2004) and ‘Christian Marclay’ (2003).

Cuauhtémoc Medina is a writer and curator based in Mexico City. He is researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas at the National University of Mexico, Mexico City, and is Associate Curator, Latin American Art Collections, at Tate Modern, London. He has written on such artists as Santiago Sierra, Brian Jungen and Teresa Margolles, as well as on a number of historical subjects, including the Fluxus movement. He has also written extensively on the work of Francis Alÿs and has collaborated on several of the artist’s most significant projects, including When Faith Moves Mountains (2002).

Jean Fisher (1942-2016) was the editor of the journal Third Text, the anthologies Global Visions: A New Internationalism in the Visual Arts (1994), Reverberations: Tactics of Resistance, Forms of Agency in Trans/cultural Practices (2000) and Over Here: International Perspectives on Art and Culture (2005, with Gerardo Mosquera). She was also the author of a book of essays, Vampire in the Text (2003), on contemporary art and culture. She also taught at Middlesex University and the Royal College of Art, London.

On the Contemporary Artists Series

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“The combination of intelligent analysis, personal insight, useful facts and plentiful pictures is a superb format invaluable for specialists but also interesting for casual readers, it makes these books a must for the library of anyone who cares about contemporary art.”—Time Out

“A unique series of informative monographs on individual artists.”—The Sunday Times

“Gives the reader the impression of a personal encounter with the artists. Apart from the writing which is lucid and illuminating, it is undoubtedly the wealth of lavish illustrations which makes looking at these books a satisfying entertainment.”—The Art Book

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