Francis Alÿs (1959)

Francis Alÿs hails from the Belgian contemporary art scene but associates his life with Mexico. After studying architecture, he extended his multidisciplinary roots to tap into anthropological and geopolitical motifs. Alÿs has produced a wide variety of projects, from actions to installations, videos, paintings and drawings. Perhaps his most well-known performance is Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing, where the artist dragged a block of ice along the streets of Mexico city until it melted completely. His works are held in the collections of globally recognised art institutions such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Tate Modern, and MoMA.

The Signet Bank Art Collection features the photodocumentation of a performance staged by Francis Alÿs as part of Manifesto X. The performance is rooted in his childhood, when the artist-to-be had planned a drive from their home in Belgium to the Soviet Union in a particular vehicle – which eventually fell apart, forcing the siblings to abandon their journey. The photo of a crashed green car represents collapse and reflects Alÿs’s current personal attitude to the policy being pursued by Russian government.