On January 6th, 2011, ADA organised an excursion to Brussels to visit Francis Alÿs’s solo exhibition A Story of Deception at Wiels, Brussels.

Francis Alÿs is a Belgium born artist (1959) who lives and works in Mexico City. The exhibition in Wiels had a retrospective character, presenting both iconic and recent works. Among them were paintings, drawings, video, animation and installation, some of which were shown for the first time.

Francis Alÿs’s work often starts with a simple act, either by him or others, which is then documented in a range of media. Working in urban settings and dramatic landscapes, he creates interventions, which frequently address a historical or political concern attached to a specific site. Alÿs moved to Mexico City in the mid 1980s at a time of political unrest. He began to make work which recorded every day life there, capturing images of street sleepers and workers. [Quoted from Wiels’s press text.]

After seeing the show in Wiels, ADA’s tour continued to Jan Mot Gallery, which showed Le Versant de l’Analyse, by the French artist Pierre Bismuth. The last stop of the tour was Dépendance gallery, with the exhibition The Balalaika Moment by Josef Strau.