Francis Alys
dal 27/10/2009 al 20/2/2010
Segnalato da
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia
27/10/2009
Francis Alys
Monasterio de Santo Domingo de Silos, Burgos
Fabiola. The exhibition is comprised of some three hundred works belonging to the artist's collection. The show's point of departure is found in a work whose whereabouts are currently unknown: Fabiola in a Red Veil by French painter Jean-Jacques Henner (1829-1905), which represents the figure of St. Fabiola who lived in Rome around the fourth century. Over the years, Alys has amassed numerous works by different artists who have depicted the Christian saint using highly diverse materials.
Beginning October 28, the Santo Domingo de Silos Monastery will host an exhibition dedicated to Belgian artist Francis Alÿs (Antwerp, 1959). The exhibition Fabiola, organized by the Museo Reina Sofía, is comprised of some three hundred works belonging to the artist’s collection. This exhibition could be seen last year at the Dia Art Foundation of New York and has been shown recently at the National Portrait Gallery in London, making its next stop at Silos.
The exhibition’s point of departure is found in a work whose whereabouts are currently unknown: Fabiola in a Red Veil by French painter Jean–Jacques Henner (1829-1905), which represents the figure of St. Fabiola who lived in Rome around the fourth century. Over the years, Francis Alÿs has amassed numerous works by different artists who have depicted the Christian saint using highly diverse materials. With his collection, Alÿs aims at lending creative legitimacy to anonymous objects, an inherent characteristic in the artist’s own production and research on collecting.
After studying engineering and architecture in Belgium and Venice, Francis Alÿs moved to Mexico City where he has lived since the late 1980s. One of the world’s most enormous and chaotic metropolises, Mexico City serves as a paradigmatic stage for contemporary urban culture, which the artist views as an immense, open-air laboratory. Alÿs’s oeuvre constitutes an eclectic repertoire of painting, photography, video art and performance. Alÿs has participated in numerous group exhibitions, among them NowHere at the Louisiana Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark (1996) and Antechamber at Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (1997). Highlighted among his individual exhibitions are those held at the Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City (1997) and Francis Alÿs: The Poet and the Fly, exhibited at the Museo Reina Sofía in 2003.
Fabiola is generously supported by [TK from MNCARS and Camara de Burgos]. Organizational support for the project in New York was provided by the Hispanic Society of America, the Brown Foundation, the Peter Norton Family Foundation, The Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and Councilmember Robert Jackson, New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency, and Erica and Joseph Samuels. Additional support for the accompanying Dia publication was made possible by the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.
Dia Art Foundation will furnish the MNCARS with sponsorship credits or acknowledgements that would appear on publicity or printed materials for the exhibition in a timely fashion
Santo Domingo de Silos Monastery
calle Santo Domingo, 2 - Burgos