Plunge into tornado with a camera. From morning to evening, release the shutter until the large ice melted. Such actions Francis Alÿs did could be seen reckless or funny. However, it reminds of the reality we cannot be ignored.

The artist Francis Alÿs (1959) gets the problems in an ordinary life as walking on the street in a city, and proceeds many projects in the world, from his self-action to large-scale project with hundreds of participants. It has been showed as various forms, such as documentary film, photograph, painting, drawing, and even postcard. Most of his works talk about social and political issues in Mexico where he lives, but his expression is receiving great attention internationally, since it makes everyone feel sympathy for even these situations in a certain area.

The exhibition is separated as two section, which covers from early to new works. First section introduces 15 projects completed in Mexico in film, photo, painting, and sculpture, and explores his activities. At the second section, as focusing on the new large project 'Don't Cross the Bridge Before You Get to the River' progressed in the strait of Gibraltar, 140 works of documentary, painting, drawing, installation, sculpture and photo relating to it will be exhibited.

Section 1: Mexico Survey (6 April - 9 June)
Section 2: Gibraltar Focus (29 June - 8 September)

*image (left)
'Don't Cross the Bridge Before You Get to the River', 2009
Video (To watch the trailer, please click here)
© Francis Alÿs 

Courtesy of Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo