With a career spanning four decades, Francis Alÿs (born 1959, Antwerp, Belgium) has forged a unique and radical practice ranging from painting and drawing to film and animation. Trained as an architect and urbanist in Belgium and Italy, Alÿs became interested in the civic role of the urban environment. He moved to Mexico City in 1986 where the rapidly transforming city and the consequent changes to social dynamics in the late 1980s inspired him to become a visual artist. 

Action is at the centre of Alÿs’s practice. He was the protagonist of most of his interventions in the 1990s, using his own body because it was immediately available. Children’s Games (1999–present) marks a clear shift: his agency was expanded and redistributed as children became the subjects. Taking its title from one of the earliest films in the series – Children’s Game #2: Ricochets (2007) – the exhibition emerges from the changing nature of participation in his practice, reflecting possibilities of collective consciousness and bodily agency. 

Complementing the expansive universe of Children’s Games, the exhibition presents some animation works, building on Alÿs’s interest in play through a focused exploration of hand games. Play is integrated and encouraged in the galleries through dedicated playrooms. 

The exhibition Ricochets is organized by Barbican, London with Fundação de Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto and is curated by Florence Ostende.