CHILDREN GAMES, videos serie by Francis Alÿs

15 videos – various formats – color

Artist: Francis Alÿs
Sound Rercording, Sound Editing, Mixing: Félix Blume
DOP, Editing: Julien Devaux

We all know the role of children’s games in mirroring the symbols and structures of their era. They operate as surreptitious historical communicating vessels: a means whereby an atemporal vocabulary passes from one generation to the next, crossing continents and civilisations despite the violence of colonial and modern transformations. Ancient rituals survive, at times, within childish rules and rhymes that, if more closely looked at, contain whole bygone worldviews and poetic modes of thinking. Since 2008 Francis Alÿs has started a compilation of such games, both as a homage to the source of inspiration of many of his own fables, and as another collection of social repertoires. Each of them appears, also, as a means to signify the passing of our own dreams and projects into the future.