REEL UNREEL, video installation by Francis Alÿs (Afghanistan)

19min – HD – Color

Artist: Francis Alÿs
Collaboration: Julien Devaux & Ajmal Maiwandi
Sound Editing & Mixing: Félix Blume

Presented at dOCUMENTA (13)
http://www.francisalys.com
http://d13.documenta.de

Produced in Afghanistan for dOCUMENTA, it derives from his interest in children’s street games, such as the art of rolling a wheel with a stick, which he witnessed in Bamiyan and Kabul. The title alludes to the real/unreal image of Afghanistan conveyed by the media in the West: how the Afghan way of life, along with ist people, has gradually been dehumanized and after decades of war, turned into a Western fiction. Yet “real” turns into “reel” since the object beeing rolled around the undulating streets of Kabul’s old town is a reel of film.

EXHIBITIONS: dOCUMENTA (13), MADRE (Italy), David Zwirner (New York), CSW (Poland), TAMAYO Museum (Mexico)