Art Sonje Center proudly presents Francis Alÿs’ first solo exhibition in Korea, titled The Logbook of Gibraltar, from 31st August to 4th November 2018. Francis Alÿs, who was born in Belgium and moved to Mexico in the mid’ 1980′s, conveys critical yet witty messages on social and political issues and situations through his artistic performances. In this exhibition, he uses his typical metaphoric and poetic language to present geopolitical issues from regions where conflicts regarding national borders persist, centering on Havana (Cuba), Key West (U.S.), and the Strait of Gibraltar between the African and European continents.

Bridge/Puente (2006), the first of Alÿs’ Bridge projects, is a commentary on the tension between Cuban immigrants and U.S. Immigration authorities. It is a documentary that records the attempt to build a metaphorical bridge between the United States and Cuba using fishing boats from both countries. Each fishermen community leaves its respective coast to line up their boats to create the illusion of a floating bridge connecting the two continents.

In Don’t Cross the Bridge Before You Get to the River (2008), the exhibition’s highlight, Alÿs creates a second bridge in Gibraltar. The Strait of Gibraltar was a strategic location, and the center of conflict between the great powers. Its width, which is only 13 km, could hypothetically make it possible to connect Africa and Europe with boats, and this idea is coupled with kids’ imaginations and poetic gestures. In this project, children from Spain and Morocco start from each side of the coast carrying small boats made of shoes, attempting to meet on the horizon. Unlike Bridge/Puentewhere there was a hefty dose of tension among the participants, here the children playfully participate with innocent curiosity. The boats the kids made out of their shoes replace physical bridges and fishing boats, thereby transforming the kids into giants from fairy tales who walk towards the horizon. This project becomes a fable with kids’ games used to illustrate the belief in the possibility of change.

This exhibition also presents Francis Alÿs’ recent works, including 22 paintings, video works and installations such as Painting/Retoque (2008), a film that follows the process of repainting a weathered centerline on a road in the Panama Canal Zone as a metaphor for the symbolic divide that determined the destiny of North and South America; and The Loop (1997), a reaction to the United States’ ever-tightening immigration policies. Alÿs’ project takes the shape of a journey around the globe taking the longest possible route from Tijuana, Mexico to San Diego, California without ever crossing the Mexico-US border. <Art Sonje Center >

Talk – As if it was a bridge

Date: 30 August 2018, Thu, 4 pm
Venue: Art Hall (B1)
Lecturer: Young Min Moon (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
Admission: Free

* The talk will be followed by Q & A with Francis Alÿs.
* Korean-English translation will be provided.

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About the Artist

Born in 1959 in Antwerp, Belgium, Francis Alÿs moved to Mexico City in 1986, where he continues to live and work. Throughout his practice, Alÿs consistently directs his distinct poetic and imaginative sensibility toward anthropological and geopolitical concerns centered around observations of, and engagements with everyday life.

Over the past decade, he had exhibitions at prominent venues, including Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto (2017); the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) – Fundación Costantini in Buenos Aires (2017); Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de la Habana in Havana (2017); the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City (2015); documenta 13 (2012); The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (2011); and Tate Modern, London (2010).

For more information on the artist’s video projects: francisalys.com

• Artist: Francis Alÿs
• Organized by: Art Sonje Center
• Curated by: Sunjung Kim
• Supported by: Maeil Dairies Co. Ltd, Embassy of Belgium
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