Francis Alÿs

Francis Alÿs was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1959 and moved to Mexico City in 1986 where he still lives and works today. Over the years he has worked in many different media, from painting to performance, film and photography, and is often directly involved in his own works. The work Paradox of Praxis 1 (Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing) is typical, documenting an action performed on the streets of Mexico City in 1997 which, in spring 2009, gave a group show at Ingleby Gallery its theme. The film depicts a simple and seemingly pointless endeavour – a large block of ice being pushed through the city streets by the Alÿs until it melts away to nothing – and yet in doing so it reclaims something of itself: the apparently futile gesture becomes paradoxical – it is the subject of its own film, an artwork… Nothing to something.

Francis Alÿs is represented by David Zwirner, New York.