THE NATURE OF THE GAME

FRANCIS ALŸS

WIELS
BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 7 - JANUARY 1, 2024









Get out of the elevator and hear
children
a lot of children

In the entry hall
a first video
from the game collection
of Francis Alÿs

Children's Game #34: Appelsindans

Images shot in Copenhagen
where children
are pressing themselves
one against the other
to maintain
as long as possible
an orange
stuck between their faces

Then a large dark room
with screens everywhere
where different children's games
are displayed

to circulate
from one video to another
stools on wheels







On the walls
a number for each game
an explanation
and the location of the filming
Unicef style

Contagion of joy
that invades the museum space

but also a disturbing impression
of a nostalgia for games in the open air with a shoestring 
of ethnological practices, documenting and numbering
to take something away from these children 
of an "us" and a "them"

Can we collect images of children's games?
without making from children an object of collection?
should we limit ourselves to objects?
or to the description of the games?
or to sound recordings?

Can we show these videos?
at adult height?
Should we let children film themselves?
look at the camera?
give them a voice, a name?
or show ourselves among the children?

Give ourselves
with the same abandon
that the children in their games

Leave these children's games
awaken our body memory
and question us
about our moments
of collective pleasure
without other goals
that the pleasure of the game

when was the last time?

Some videos
seem to me to be of another order
like coins
who do not quite respect
the rules of a collection

For example
the images of these three Ukrainian boys
dressed as soldiers and imitating a checkpoint
stopping cars
on the side of the road
some adults play the game
others not

Other videos are so unique
that they annihilate
the possibility
of accumulation

Children's game #29: The wheel

a determined child
pushes a big tire
on a steep slope
on a mountain of black dust
at the edge of a Lithium mine in Congo

at the top of the slope
the child slips
inside the tire
and lets himself fall

the wheel turns turns
turns turns turns
the child smiles
a few time

Children's game #30: Imbu

a video shown on
a vertical screen
children unite
to make a sound
which attracts mosquitoes
common language
all eyes
including ours
are turned towards the sky
and the cloud of insects

Further in the exhibition
another collection

In a black elongated window
dozens of calls
for all kinds of birds
whose name is written by hand

calls
make you come
by feint
to kill

or like Alÿs in his video

The Silence of Ani

distribute these calls
to adolescents
so that they reproduce
birdsong
in the silent ruins
of an ancient city
on the Turkish-Armenian border

A game of hide-and-seek
filmed by the artist

who is baiting who?



Roshan Di Puppo