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Children’s Game #1: Caracoles

Children’s Game #1: Caracoles

Mexico City, Mexico, 1999; 4:43 min In collaboration with Julien Devaux High above the city that shimmers like a distant sea, a boy kicks a plastic bottle half full of liquid up a steep shanty road of light and dark. A norteño song plays somewhere. A truck passes. The challenge is to get to the top of the hill by kicking the bottle steadily upwards, intercepting it as it rolls back, kicking it again, playing with and against gravity. The bottle drifts and dodges, zigs and zags, is briefly kidnapped by a dog. At the end, the Sisyphean stakes of the game become clear as the bottle gets away and with a groan the boy runs downhill after it. Lorna Scott Fox More info: [Francis Alÿs,https://francisalys.com/]

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Children’s Game #3: Coins

Children’s Game #3: Coins

Mexico City, Mexico, 2008; 2:39 min In collaboration with Julien Devaux We see three kids from behind, standing at a set distance from a peeling, whitewashed wall. The rule is that each player throws a coin against the wall, that drops and rolls back on the pavement; the player whose coin remains the closest to the wall can keep the other players’ coins. As we watch, though, the coins tinkle everywhere, several flung by each player, further multiplied by their shadows, after which all three rush forward to scoop up loot, seemingly at random and yet without disagreements. Lorna Scott Fox More info: [Francis Alÿs,https://francisalys.com/]

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Children’s Game #5: Revolver

Children’s Game #5: Revolver

Baja California, Mexico, 2009; 2:49 min In collaboration with Julien Devaux The props in this game are wooden sticks or branches shaped like guns. Two kids pretend to fire at each other, making elaborate and highly varied shooting noises. A further dramatic element is the creative use of whatever lends itself in the vicinity –dustbins, trees, walls, abandoned cars– to improvise scenes inspired by war films and westerns, car chases and shootouts between gangs. The camerawork is rapid, swirling, and full of jump cuts. A little girl sometimes raises her arms, in exasperation or surrender? Near the end, some half-hearted dying noises. Though the roles of victim and killer are pre-assigned, neither boy actually bites the dust. Lorna Scott Fox More info: [Francis Alÿs,https://francisalys.com/]

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Children’s Game #6: Sandcastles

Children’s Game #6: Sandcastles

Knokke-Le-Zoute, Belgium, 2009; 6:04 min In collaboration with Julien Devaux, Cristian Manzutto, and Félix Blume The castle must be positioned just far enough from the sea to be completed before the tide reaches it. As the moat is dug by busy spades, the vacated sand forms a growing pile in the middle. Sea water starts to rise into the moat from below. As the waves break gently, closer and closer, the children dig faster to fortify the outer rampart with sodden sand. Even as the defenses are being flooded, they work on shaping and firming the castle with their hands and feet. The tide soon overwhelms the mini world and smooths the whole thing flat, leaving the children standing ankle-deep in ebb and flow. Lorna Scott Fox More info: [Francis Alÿs,https://francisalys.com/]

Duration : 6m
Maturity Level : all

Children’s Game #7: Stick and Wheels

Children’s Game #7: Stick and Wheels

Bamiyan, Afghanistan, 2010; 5:22 min In collaboration with Natalia Almada On a wide, gravelly mountain road, earth-coloured dwellings in the background, small boys scamper behind tyres of different thickness and circumference, beating them onwards with a stick. A donkey brays in sympathy. The thin, flexible tyres of bicycles are the hardest to keep upright, especially when performing turns (slowing and tilting the rubber hoop without loss of momentum) before racing back, sometimes in competition with another, cheered on by their companions, towards the starting line. Lorna Scott Fox More info: [Francis Alÿs,https://francisalys.com/]

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

Children’s Game #14: Piedra, papel o tijera

Children’s Game #14: Piedra, papel o tijera

Mexico City, Mexico, 2013; 2:51 min In collaboration with Julien Devaux and Félix Blume This ancient Chinese game is played between two people, who in unison say ‘rock, paper, scissors’ before ‘throwing’ one of the three figures at each other: closed fist or flat hand or two fingers in a V shape. Rock blunts scissors, scissors cut paper, paper enfolds rock. Each round is win, lose, or –if both players choose the same ‘tool’– draw. We see not hands but a shadow-play of hands against a pale background, as the two antagonists display the tremendous skill that kids alone can muster in what seems impossibly fast motion. ‘Conceptual art,’ you say, the kind you could watch for hours, the hands as synecdoche not of the body but of two bodies in a rhythmic frenzy of elegant interaction and dissolution. Lorna Scott Fox More info: [Francis Alÿs,https://francisalys.com/]

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Children’s Game #11: Wolf and Lamb

Children’s Game #11: Wolf and Lamb

Yamgun, Afghanistan, 2011; 3:01 min In collaboration with Elena Pardo A group of children hold hands in a circle. The child in the middle plays the lamb, the one outside is the wolf. The wolf tries to catch the lamb by breaking through the human fence, but the kids crouch quickly down, blocking him with lowered arms. If the wolf does breach the circle, the lamb can duck out of it, while the kids now try to keep the wolf imprisoned inside. At times the cheeky lamb provokes the wolf, rushing out of safety almost into his path and darting back in. The lamb may be caught, ending that round of the game, inside or outside the fold; but these kids prefer close shaves, the dramatic prolongation of suspense. Lorna Scott Fox More info: [Francis Alÿs,https://francisalys.com/]

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Children’s Game #9: Saltamontes

Children’s Game #9: Saltamontes

Salto Acha, Venezuela, 2011; 6:10 min In collaboration with Benjamin Mast, Julien Devaux, and Félix Blume Girls and boys, together for once, hunt through lush grass and undergrowth, on the lookout for well-camouflaged grasshoppers. When one is found its hind legs are pulled off, though not its wings. Each child hurls his or her grasshopper up into the air, where it flutters against the sky above the upturned faces of the skipping, wheeling children. Unable to fly far, it will soon free-fall and be captured again. The winner is the player whose grasshopper stays the longest in the air. Lorna Scott Fox More info: [Francis Alÿs,https://francisalys.com/]

Duration : 6m
Maturity Level : all

Children’s Game #10: Papalote

Children’s Game #10: Papalote

Balkh, Afghanistan, 2011; 4:13 min In collaboration with Elena Pardo and Félix Blume A 10-year-old boy in a pink salwar kameez stands near a dune-colored wall under a powder-blue sky. He frowns and gesticulates, conversing in stops and starts with the heavens or at least with the gusting wind because you don’t see his kite at first, and the string is so fine you can’t see that either. What you see is a body interacting with unknown forces, pulling to the left, the right, up, down, quickly, over to the left again, and so on. Here is not only the body of the boy but the body of the world in deft mutual mimesis, amounting to ‘the mastery of non-mastery’ which is the greatest game of all: a guide, a goal, a strategy –all in one– for dealing with man’s domination of nature (including human nature). Afghan kite fighters often attach small blades to their kite strings or coat them with ground glass and glue, the better to down their opponents. Under the Taliban, kite-flying was banned. Lorna Scott Fox More info: [Francis Alÿs,https://francisalys.com/]

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

The Utopians

The Utopians

Filmmakers Frederick Bernas and Nico Muñoz follow the artist and scientist Joaquín Fargas as he embarks on a quest to reveal the environmental impact of extracting lithium, a key component of electric cars – which aren’t necessarily as sustainable as some would like you to believe. Fargas has created the “Rabdomante” robot, a solar caterpillar that collects condensation in arid deserts. Its name is derived from “rhabdomancy,” a supposedly divine ability to discover hidden water sources or minerals; but how many thousands of these machines would be needed to produce a real change? It seems absurd to think about – but doing nothing at all would be even worse.

Duration : 0s
Maturity Level : all

Panorama

Panorama

Panorama is the first chapter of a trilogy on the city created by Gianluca Abbate. The video is a review of a polis that stretches away over an infinite global space with no more uninhabited places or frontiers where we can take refuge. In this landscape, we cannot see any way of readmission for those who have once been excluded, and this recalls imaginary worlds in search of a balance.

Duration : 7m
Maturity Level : all

Like Aliens

Like Aliens

Artist Joaquin Fargas creates little worlds from the dump and makes us rethink our role in the universe. Fargas creates natural ecosystems isolated inside sealed containers that only allow the external influence of heat and light. These systems, like our planet, depend on light as a source of energy for the development and continued existence of the life cycles that take place inside of them. These orbs represent our planet on a miniature scale, highlighting its fragility and the care its inhabitants should be taking.create little worlds from the dump and makes us rethinking our role in the universe. Film by Nico Muñoz

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

No Water

No Water

During spring 2022, a year of drought, Italian Prealps, and kilometers of rivers without water, artist Pietro Gardoni decided to walk inside to wave a blue flag. Soundtrack by Luca Formentini Drone shooting by Ettore Zorzini

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Goldilocks

Goldilocks

When temperatures across Ontario dropped to record breaking lows and Niagara Falls partially froze, the filmmaker Su Rynard was able to capture the three states of water in the singular image of the falls. This work wants to be a remainder of the extraordinarily unique set of circumstances required to create a climate equilibrium supportive of life.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

The Pillars of the Earth

The Pillars of the Earth

This video by Virginia Zanetti is a part of an ongoing series of shot and video in several parts of the world. Action transforms perspective: does a human being along with others follow historical cycles? Or do we support the Earth, changing the fate of history? “The Pillars of the Earth” explores the concepts of rebirth and revolution through a reversal of our vision. Collective action can present a new view of the possibilities for human emancipation. We should aim towards reversing the point of view, sharing our experiences with people from different areas of the world, creating a community in search of newly found ethics or spirituality, and reaching tops from which you may “see” better. We talk, exchange ideas and spontaneously create a growing community of people.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Purple Haze

Purple Haze

The scenarios in Paul Rosero Contreras’ Purple Haze come from a dystopian future. A future in which the ocean has become acid due to carbon dioxide contamination of the atmosphere, thus preventing the normal growth of certain sessile marine organisms. The artist, together with biologist colleagues, study some species that inhabit the area of the volcano Roca Redonda, in the Galapagos, where the volcano activity naturally acidifies the water.

Duration : 11m
Maturity Level : all

The Journey

The Journey

The Journey (2020) by Axl Le is about a planet where some mysterious experiments are being carried out in order to restore its nature. The video work consists of three parts: Awakening, sleep, and rebirth. Each part uses a different perspective to tell the story of the forest. Awakening: Records and observations of an astronaut. Sleep: Talks about the transformation of the astronaut. The planet transformed him, and he became a key part of the planet’s recovery. Rebirth: The revival of the god of life changes the entire planet. The inspiration for the work came from a trip to Norway in 2017, where Axl experienced the forest for the first time. He hopes that after watching the work, people will be more willing to protect nature and cherish everything that nature gives, rather than destroy her repeatedly.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

THE PLANT

THE PLANT

The Plant is the third work of Ali M. Demirel’s post-apocalyptic utopias on architecture. It is shot at The Packard Plant in Detroit. Demirel observes abandoned architectural structures with his camera to fantasize about a post-apocalyptic future with no human survivors. How do structures live without the humans they’re designed for? The work is an artistic take on the beauty of an objectively dystopian scenario. Soundtrack by TV Victor

Duration : 14m
Maturity Level : all

THE PIER

THE PIER

“The Pier” is the first work of Ali M. Demirel’s trilogy titled ‘Post-Apocalyptic Utopians on Architecture’. Demirel observes abandoned architectural structures to fantasize about a post-apocalyptic future with no human survivors.

Duration : 17m
Maturity Level : all

Réprouvé

Réprouvé

Shingo Yoshida was at an amount of abandoned garbage in the vacant land at the end of the city of Calama in Chile. Stray dogs and gypsies have settled, the place is like a no man’s land where one can breathe an untouchable atmosphere. There is always a strong wind blowing on the flat ground. Yoshida made a wind instrument installation with abandoned bottles. This project was inspired by The seven colors of the actual "Wiphala" originating from the visible spectrum. The significance and meanings of each color are as follows: Red: The Earth and the Andean man Orange: Society and culture Yellow: Energy White: Time Green: Natural resources Blue: The heavens Violet: Andean government and self-determination The Wiphala (Quechua pronunciation: [wɪˈphɐlɐ]) is a square emblem, commonly used as a flag, representing some native peoples of the Andes that include today’s Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and parts of Argentina, Chile and Colombia.

Duration : 7m
Maturity Level : all

Terraforming

Terraforming

The video work “terraforming” by Michael Najjar focuses on the transformation of a natural environment through energy input. The underpinning idea is that of a three-phase system change. This begins with the stage of equilibrium where a system is in a certain balance and not changing at all. In the next stage, an evolving system enters a state of motion and changes where it moves away from equilibrium. The third and final stage is the phase of transformation in which the original system becomes something else. The key element in this transformation process is the sun. This process is called terraforming, whereby a hostile environment, i.e. a planet that is too cold, too hot, or has an unbreathable atmosphere, can be altered to make it suitable for human life. Such a process is not merely a futuristic scenario but represents exactly what is happening on Earth at this moment as the process of atmospheric change brought about by increasing CO2 emissions heats up our planet and speeds up the process of climate change.

Duration : 9m
Maturity Level : all

Coastal Variations

Coastal Variations

David Cass did specially created for #ArtSpeaksOut this video work. Around the world, sea levels are rising. By now, we are almost all aware of this phenomenon. This artwork focuses on the sea, and specifically, the impact of rising sea levels on coastlines around the world. Without doubt, all coastlines globally will be impacted by rising water as the climate crisis unfolds and ocean temperatures rise, but on a local level the variations in rates of rise from place to place are dramatic. My research over the last few years has led me to creatively interpret data from tide-gauges. These devices allow us to see exactly what is happening at a local level over expended periods (from thirty years, to well over a century). They chart the height of the sea in relation to land and overwhelmingly confirm a global upward trend.

Duration : 7m
Maturity Level : all

Umwelt

Umwelt

"Umwelt" means "environment" or "surroundings" in German. Japanese artist Yoshiyuki Katayama used time-lapse techniques to film the gradual evolution of plants, which he then composited with slow-motion insect imagery. Fascinated with the relationship between flowers and insects, Katayama enjoyed exploring the juxtaposition of both movements within the same frame.

Duration : 1m
Maturity Level : all

Dollar-Tree

Dollar-Tree

With Dollar Tree, Isabelle Hayeur shows her reflection on the themes of consumption, pollution and poverty. This video was filmed at a garbage dump on the San Carlos Indian Reservation in Arizona, one of the poorest Native American communities in the United States.

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all