Francis Alys: The Nature of the Game, Belgium Pavilion

The Government of Flanders presents “The Nature of the Game,” a Venetian exhibition of the films and paintings of Francis Alÿs curated by Hilde Teerlinck. At the Belgian Pavilion, Alÿs presents films made in Afghanistan, Belgium, Canada, DR Congo, Hong Kong, Mexico and Switzerland of children playing. For Alÿs, play in the public arena has proved to be the best means to make contact with a place and begin to understand its socio-cultural codes. The activity, as natural and essential a human need as eating and sleeping, here reveals a generative, creative relationship to the world which is played in. As social interaction becomes increasingly virtual, the artist seeks to document these relationships before they disappear. To understand them is to witness the culture and the patterns by which people live; as he has stated, “We, as adults, should be faithful to the children we were.”