Francis Alÿs Movies
- 2010
Tornado
Tornado12010HD
For the last decade Alÿs has made repeated trips to the dusty highlands south of Mexico City to chase the tornadoes that frequently occur in...
- 2000
Re-enacment
Re-enacment02000HD
For this work Alÿs purchased a gun in Mexico City then walked through the city streets with the weapon in his hand. After eleven minutes he was...
- 2023
Children’s Game #38: Ellsakat
Children’s Game #38: Ellsakat02023HD
Neither indoors nor out, but on the doorstep, where you might play a quick game while waiting for someone. Girl and boy pile up candy wrappers, face...
- 2021
Children’s Game #26: Kisolo
Children’s Game #26: Kisolo02021HD
Kisolo is one of a thousand variants of the global Ur-game, Mancala, a “sowing” game sometimes still played with seeds even when using a...
- 2017
Children’s Game #17: Chunggi
Children’s Game #17: Chunggi02017HD
Reminiscent of male football tricks where a ball is juggled frontally off the knee or foot, Chunggi, popular among Nepalese girls, appears a lot more...
- 2019
Children’s Game #21: Hand Stack
Children’s Game #21: Hand Stack02019HD
- 2012
Children’s Game #13: Piñata
Children’s Game #13: Piñata02012HD
A piñata is a papier-mâché figure stuffed with sweets. Common at birthdays in urban patios, here we find it in a field, where a...
- 2017
Children’s Game #18: Knucklebones
Children’s Game #18: Knucklebones02017HD
Knucklebones, or jacks, has existed for more than 2000 years and was first played with the astralagus bones of a sheep. This version –played...
- 2010
Children’s Game #7: Stick and Wheels
Children’s Game #7: Stick and Wheels02010HD
On a wide, gravelly mountain road, earth-coloured dwellings in the background, small boys scamper behind tyres of different thickness and...
- 2008
Children’s Game #3: Coins
Children’s Game #3: Coins02008HD
We see three kids from behind, standing at a set distance from a peeling, whitewashed wall. The rule is that each player throws a coin against the...
- 2002
When Faith Moves Mountains
When Faith Moves Mountains52002HD
Alÿs’s motto for When Faith Moves Mountains is “Maximum effort, minimum result.” For this epic project the artist invited five...
- 2011
Children’s Game #10: Papalote
Children’s Game #10: Papalote02011HD
A 10-year-old boy in a pink salwar kameez stands near a dune-coloured wall under a powder-blue sky. He frowns and gesticulates, conversing in stops...
- 2012
Children’s Game #12: Musical Chairs
Children’s Game #12: Musical Chairs02012HD
The game is filmed from above in a single take, emphasizing the inexorable process of subtraction. Six children place five chairs in a row, facing in...
- 2013
Children’s Game #14: Piedra, papel o tijera
Children’s Game #14: Piedra, papel o tijera02013HD
This ancient Chinese game is played between two people, who in unison say ‘rock, paper, scissors’ before ‘throwing’ one of...
- 2009
Children’s Game #6: Sandcastles
Children’s Game #6: Sandcastles02009HD
The castle must be positioned just far enough from the sea to be completed before the tide reaches it. As the moat is dug by busy spades, the vacated...
- 2009
Children’s Game #5: Revolver
Children’s Game #5: Revolver02009HD
The props in this game are wooden sticks or branches shaped like guns. Two kids pretend to fire at each other, making elaborate and highly varied...
- 2021
Children’s Game #30: Imbu
Children’s Game #30: Imbu02021HD
Though mosquitoes have almost as many sensory auditory cells as we do, their hearing is for the sole purpose of finding a mate. Individual males...
- 2021
Children’s Game #29: La roue
Children’s Game #29: La roue02021HD
Over the city of Lubumbashi looms the mampala or slag heap of the Étoile du Congo cobalt mine, its lower slopes today sifted by the...
- 2011
Children’s Game #11: Wolf and Lamb
Children’s Game #11: Wolf and Lamb02011HD
A group of children hold hands in a circle. The child in the middle plays the lamb, the one outside is the wolf. The wolf tries to catch the lamb by...
- 2021
Children’s Game #31: Slakken
Children’s Game #31: Slakken02021HD
Snail racing is a game of unequal chances, especially when your snails are not trained champions, but randomly plucked off a wall; individual...