13 Jun '14

Francis Alÿs crashes car at Manifesta 10

Summary

Antwerp-born Francis Alÿs starts his Manifesta installation in the courtyard of the Hermitage. Don’t worry, no one was hurt

 

Two Brussels artists also at Manifesta

After Genk in 2012, the nomadic international art show Manifesta has moved to St Petersburg in Russia. This journey is mirrored in the piece contributed to the exhibition by Flemish conceptual artist Francis Alÿs.

As a young man, Alÿs attempted to drive from Brussels to St Petersburg in a Lada, but broke down on the way. This time he has completed the trip, ending it by crashing the olive-green Soviet car into a tree in the courtyard of the Hermitage Museum. The wreckage resulting from this collision between Communist engineering and Russian Imperial heritage (pictured) is the centrepiece of the installation. The event has also been filmed and the journey documented.

Manifesta 10 opens on 28 June and also features work by Brussels-based artists Ann Veronica Janssens and Joëlle Tuerlinckx.

Now read this

  • Manifest destiny

    It’s the moment the arts community has been waiting for: the opening of Manifesta 9 in the old Waterschei mine site in Genk, Limburg province. One of the top three visual arts events in Europe, the nomadic biennial chose the region for its postindustrial cultural transitions and its rich coal-mining history.

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  • Poetry in motion

    Francis Alÿs is giving sense to senseless acts: pushing a block of ice for nine hours through the streets of Mexico City until it has completely melted (Paradox of Praxis I (Sometimes Doing Something Leads to Nothing)); the driver of a red Volkswagen Beetle trying to ascend a hill while listening to a brass band rehearsing, but when the musicians stop playing and start tuning their instruments, the cars rolls downhill again (Rehearsal I).

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