Media

Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany

Francis Alÿs: Kids Take Over

Barbican Centre, London, United Kingdom

Francis Alÿs: Ricochets

both new and old films by Francis Alÿs, all depicting traditional and lesser-known hand games played by children and adults alike. 

Since 1999, Alÿs has recorded children at play in different contexts and environments around the globe. Over the previous two decades, he has traveled around the world to film the critically acclaimed series

: from ‘musical chairs’ in Mexico, to ‘leapfrog’ in Iraq, ‘jump rope’ in Hong Kong, and ‘wolf and lamb’ in Afghanistan. 

was previously on view at the Barbican Centre, London.

Still from a film by Francis Alys in collaboration with Rafael Ortega, Julien Devaux, and Copenhagen Contemporary, titled Children's Games #34: Appelsindans, Copenhagen, Denmark, dated 2022.

Fundação Serralves, Porto, Portugal

Children are the focus of this monumental exhibition that revolves around the thirty video projections of 

 shows playing children from all over the world. For over twenty years, Alÿs has been traveling to places as diverse as Congo, Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Alaska, and Cuba to film children who are completely immersed in their outdoor playing, frequently using materials they have found. While some of the games have long traditions, others have been spontaneously invented by the children in reaction to their surroundings.

Alÿs chose to turn the largest room of the exhibition—known as the “high hall”—over to the children of Cologne. Fifty schoolchildren between eight and thirteen—like the children in the films—will curate a children’s museum and a playing itinerary in this space.

In the exhibition, the artist will present a new film in his 

 series that was made exclusively with local children, driving home the connection between Alÿs’s project and the children’s museum: 

is curated by Rita Kersting and Santi Grunewald. It was previously on view at the Fundação Serralves, Portugal and the Barbican Centre, London.

For the past two decades, Alÿs has traveled around the world to film the critically acclaimed series 

: from ‘musical chairs’ in Mexico, to ‘leapfrog’ in Iraq, ‘jump rope’ in Hong Kong, and ‘wolf and lamb’ in Afghanistan.

transformed the Barbican galleries into a cinematic playground: throughout the exhibition, visitors were immersed in multi-screen film installations focussing on children’s games. Alongside the first presentation of Children’s Games in the UK, the exhibition debuted a new body of animated films depicting both traditional and lesser-known hand games played by children and adults alike.

Still from a film by Francis Alÿs, titled Children’s Games, dated 2019.

David Zwirner is an art gallery with locations in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and Hong Kong. We present physical and online exhibitions, podcasts, books, and more.