Belgian-born multimedia artist Francis Alÿs’ current exhibition at the Barbican, London, immerses visitors in a world of play, allowing audiences to escape from their everyday realities and reconnect with their inner child. Situated in the concrete, brutalist Barbican in the heart of central London, Alÿs has crafted a cacophonous and colourful playground, an homage to joy, childhood, and play around the world. The exhibition showcases a variety of filmic works under the umbrella title Children’s Game, presenting viewers with different games played by children across the globe, unifying differing cultures and traditions through this joint medium of play.
From Children’s Game #3: Imbu, wherein young boys in the Congo turn their faces to the dusk sky and hum a pitch irresistible to female mosquitoes, summoning the insects in hopes of catching and killing them, to games perhaps more familiar to a Western audience such as Children’s Game #12: Musical Chairs, which sees children in Oaxaca dancing around a circle of chairs and scrambling to be the final man standing – Alÿs’ videos communicate a universal and essential part of human nature.
Interspersed throughout the gallery are delicate, small-scale paintings, inviting viewers to peer into Alÿs magical world with the same attention and care the artist demonstrates for the environment he depicts. The upper floor of the gallery displays a series of informative placards taking visitors through the enduring history of play and games from ancient times to the present-day, shedding further insight on Alÿs’ videographic works.
‘Ricochets’ truly showcases how through generations of cultures and families, hope can be found even in the darkest of days, as seen in Alÿs’ work depicting children living in war-torn and divided countries such as the Ukraine and Iraq. In Children’s Game #19: Haram Football, a group of boys play the familiar, universal game – except there is no football to be seen, banned under the rule of the IS. However, under the glow of the evening sun, the children continue to make their own game, interrupted only by a shock of gunfire, dispersing the group of young footballers and leaving the street deserted. Despite this, Alÿs’ exhibition seems to suggest that the spirit of hope and play will live on, as it always has and always will.
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