De larges détails, sur les traces de Francis Alÿs
by Julien Devaux, Belgium 2006, 55'
PHOTOGRAPHY: Julien Devaux   PRODUCER: Atlante Productions 
EDITING: Andrè Gaultier   LANGUAGE: English, Spanish, French 
SOUND: Cristian Manzutto    

Schermo dell'Arte - Archivio Film
A striking portrait of Franco-Belgian Francis Alÿs, who currently lives and works in Mexico City. An artist and cosmopolitan flaneur in various disciplines, a tireless wanderer and crosser of spaces, he uses a wide variety of materials and ideas in his work. Through the eye of the camera, we follow him in the throes of action, video, installations and urban interventions from Mexico City to London, from Lima to Berlin. Collectors, friends, employees try to tell us who he is. In the awareness of "being nothing and not wanting to become anything," his art, suspended between restlessness and weight, is a constant challenge to the banality and conformity of the eye, an attempt to reveal the importance of the details of life that build a sense of self. Julien Devaux, following the wandering artist’s trail, outlines a journey to discover places and people. This course becomes a metaphor of what producing art means to Francis Alÿs: to explore boundaries, seize events and happenings, make it possible for the process of ideas and thoughts behind the work to become active, and trigger something in the world by showing yourself to others.

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