Francis Alÿs: The Modern Procession
Texts by Francis Alÿs, Lynne Cooke, Alejandro Diaz, Tom Eccles, Dario Gamboni, RoseLee Goldberg, Laurence Kardish, Harper Montgomery, and Francesco Pellizzi
Francis Alÿs’s action, The Modern Procession, marked the temporary move of The Museum of Modern Art from Manhattan to Queens in 2002. Presented by the Public Art Fund in collaboration with the museum, it was a public parade involving over 100 participants who carried reproductions of some of the museum’s masterpieces and a living representative of contemporary art, Kiki Smith. This hardcover catalogue features extensive photographic documentation of the event as well as contributions and essays by the artist; the then Public Art Fund director Tom Eccles; curator Lynne Cook, among others.
Publisher: Public Art Fund
Artists: Francis Alÿs
Contributors: Francis Alÿs, Lynne Cooke, Alejandro Diaz, Tom Eccles, Dario Gamboni, RoseLee Goldberg, Laurence Kardish, Harper Montgomery, Francesco Pellizzi
Publication Date: 2004
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 158
ISBN: 9780960848829
Retail: $35 | £25 | $275 HKD
Status: Not Available
Francis Alÿs
Francis Alÿs’s art is centered around observations of, and engagements with, everyday life. His multifaceted projects include public actions, installations, videos, paintings, and drawings; the artist himself has described his work as “a sort of discursive argument composed of episodes, metaphors, or parables.” Across these different media, Alÿs presents his distinct poetic and imaginative sensibility towards anthropological and political concerns. His actions have involved traveling the longest possible route between locations in Mexico and the United States to highlight the increasing obstacles imposed along the border; pushing a melting block of ice through city streets; commissioning sign painters to copy his paintings; filming his efforts to enter the center of a tornado; carrying a leaking can of paint along the contested Israel/Palestine border; and equipping hundreds of volunteers to move a colossal sand dune ten centimeters.
