For this work Alÿs purchased a gun in Mexico City then walked through the city streets with the weapon in his hand. After eleven minutes he was arrested by the police. The following day he repeated the action, this time in cooperation with the police. By presenting a record of this dramatic action alongside footage of its reenactment, Alÿs blurs the boundaries between documentation and fiction. Questioning the concept of authenticity, this work demonstrates “how media can distort and dramatize the immediate reality of a moment,” the artist has said. Gallery label from Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception, May 8–August 1, 2011.
Francis Alÿs
Director
Francis Alÿs
Himself
This Is Not a Dream
2012
Miss Alma Thomas: A Life in Color
2021
You Could Have Seen The Mona Lisa
2021
Charles Vandenhove, architecte de l'art
Sarcophagus for a Queen
2019
Odvaha
2016
I Am Sitting in a Room
1970
The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism
2017
Gloria's Call
2019
ADELANTE
2017
Simplicity
2025
Untitled #29.95
1999