‘A Story of Deception‘ at the Tate Modern is a comprehensive exhibition of work by artist Francis Alÿs. What I like about Alÿs’s work is how each of his actions have an underlying social and political motive but are carried out with humour and a sense of absurdity.
The exhibition is inspiring, surprising, funny and at times it seems totally implausible that someone would do the things that Alÿ’s manages to carry out. ‘Re-enactments‘ is the work that springs to mind. Here Alÿs buys a gun and walks down the street to see how long it will take for something to happen and after about 11 minutes he is arrested. Somehow he manages to convince the Mexican police to re-enact the whole thing.
Francis Alÿs in collaboration with Rafael Ortega Re-enactments Mexico City, 2000
The work ‘When Faith Moves Mountains‘ is particularly poignant. The video is a documentary of how 500 volunteers took part in the act of shovelling a sand dune and displacing it by a few centimeters. It’s both futile and heroic and watching the spectacle is inspiring. For me it was interesting to hear how the students interpreted their involvement with the work and the concept. They describe many facets of Alys motivation behind the work such as the politics, its social element and how it will live on as legend passed down in an oral tradition.
Francis Alÿs in collaboration with Cuauhtémoc Medina and Rafael Ortega When Faith Moves Mountains (Cuando la fe mueve montañas) Lima, 2002
There is almost something very Monty Python in the work ‘Sometimes Doing Something Leads to Nothing‘ where Alÿs pushes a block of ice along the streets of Mexico City until it melts to nothing.
Another one of my favourites in the exhibition is ‘Rehearsal‘. In this performance Alÿs drives a red VW Beetle up and down a road accompanied to the soundtrack of a brass band rehearsing on his stereo.
Francis Alÿs in collaboration with Rafael Ortega Rehearsal I (El Ensayo) Tijuana, 1999-2001
‘Tornado‘ captures the essence of the exhibition well, its humorous and unbelievable at the same time. Watch carefully as the artist runs after a tornado with the intention to be smothered by it.
