WIELS

On view at WIELS 📣 ‘The Nature of the Game' by Francis Alÿs 📣 What do children from Mexico, Hong Kong, Belgium, Canada or Afghanistan have in common? They play! Following his presentation for the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2022, Francis Alÿs presents as of September 2023 his famous films of children's games at WIELS. For this exhibition, he completed several new films, including children's games he recently saw in Ukraine. ➖ Get your tickets online: 📌 Opening: 06.09.2023 Exhibition: 07.09.2023 - 07.01.2024 #WIELS #FrancisAlys #TheNatureoftheGame

On view at WIELS  🎲 ‘The Nature of the Game' by Francis Alÿs 🎲 What do children from Ukraine, Morocco, Switzerland or Iraq have in common? They play! Since 1999, during his many travels, Francis Alÿs has documented children playing in public places. At the Venice Biennale last year, Alÿs presented a series of filmed children games made during the pandemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Belgium, Hong Kong, Mexico and Switzerland, in dialogue with a group of his discreet small-format paintings. For this new presentation at WIELS, he completes several new films, including children's games he recently encountered in Ukraine. ➖ Get your tickets now online: 📌 Opening: 06.09.2023 Exhibition: 07.09.2023 - 07.01.2024 #WIELS #FrancisAlys #TheNatureoftheGame

On view at WIELS  📽️ The Nature of the Game' by Francis Alÿs 📽️ What do children from Venezuela, Denmark, Ecuador or Canada have in common? They play! Twelve years after the artist's memorable retrospective at WIELS that introduced Belgian audiences to the full scope of his work, Francis Alÿs is coming back to WIELS with the exhibition ‘The Nature of the Game’. He confronts his famous videos of his famous Children’s Games with the film installation ‘The Silence of Ani’ (2015), in which children play hide-and-seek in the ruins of an ancient Armenian city on the edge of present-day Turkey. Using bird calls, the children create the illusion that the city is coming back to life. ➖ Get your tickets online: 📌Opening: 06.09.2023 Exhibition: 07.09.2023 - 07.01.2024 #WIELS #FrancisAlys #TheNatureoftheGame

“Step on a line, break the devil’s spine, Step on a crack, break the devil’s back, Step in a ditch..." Come to WIELS this weekend and learn the end of this curious spell that a young girl chants vividly as she snakes and two-steps without loss of élan in the busy streets of Honk Kong. 🎈 Opening Hours: 11:00-18:00 from Tuesday to Sunday 🎫 Get your ticket in advance via the link in bio 🎥 Children’s Game #23: Step on a Crack Hong Kong, 2020; 4:57 min In collaboration with Rafael Ortega, Julien Devaux, and Félix Blume @francis_alys_official @rafaelortegaayala @juliendevaux @felixblume

"It's becoming harder and harder to find this type of play because public space is increasingly gridlocked, regulated, and occupied by car traffic. Everything is organized and supervised by adults. At the same time, there are the fears of parents on the one hand and the omnipresence of video games on the other. All of this reduces the space available for play. Keeping track of these games, some of which have been around for thousands of years, has become all the more urgent." Francis Alÿs Discover how a young girl in Hong Kong briefly wrests public space from the commercial values of her city, by igniting her route with meaning. 🎥 Children’s Game #23: Step on a Crack Hong Kong, 2020; 4:57 min In collaboration with Rafael Ortega, Julien Devaux, and Felix Blume 🎈 Opening Hours: 11:00-18:00 from Tuesday to Sunday 🎫 Get your ticket in advance via the link in bio @francis_alys_official @rafaelortegaayala @juliendevaux @felixblume

Only one more week until the opening of Thea Djordjadze: ’the ceiling of a courtyard’! Presented in the framework of @europalia, discover new productions and on-site improvisation created by Thea Djordjadze in a process that responds to its site, sometimes reflexively, sometimes as an immediate, visceral reaction to the given conditions. Join us for an evening of art, food and drinks @wiels_cafe and music with a DJ Set by MAMIKO MOTTO! Get in the mood and listen to the playlist by @mamikomotto, inspired by the practice of Thea Djordjadze, via the link in the bio 🔗 FREE OPENING____________06_10_2023 19:00 I Exhibition open + Bar + Food 20:00-23:30 | Music by @mamikomotto 21:30 | Last admission exhibition

An eloquent vocabulary of sculptural paintings and painterly sculptures... Join us on Friday 6 October for the opening of Thea Djordjadze's exhibition ‘the ceiling of a courtyard’, presented at WIELS in the framework of europalia georgia @europalia In her artistic practice, Thea Djordjadze proceeds by means of an informed intuition. Djordjadze’s sculptures and installations emerge from the artist's acute engagement with the active and latent energies of a space. FREE OPENING____________06_10_2023 19:00 I Exhibition open + Bar + Food 20:00-23:30 | Music by MAMIKO MOTTO @mamikomotto 21:30 | Last admission exhibition

Coming soon! The exhibition 'the ceiling of a courtyard’ by Georgian-German artist Thea Djordjadze opens next week at WIELS! In ‘the ceiling of a courtyard’, Thea Djordjadze presents a new body of work for the post-industrial architecture of WIELS, examining and challenging not only the formal and material qualities of the building, but also its institutional context. Join us on Friday 6 October for the opening of 'the ceiling of a courtyard', presented at WIELS in the framework of europalia georgia @europalia FREE OPENING____________06_10_2023 19:00 I Exhibition open + Bar + Food 20:00-23:30 | Music by Mamiko Motto @mamikomotto 21:30 | Last admission exhibition Curator: Dirk Snauwaert Associate curator: Pauline Hatzigeorgiou @paulinehatzigeorgiou In collaboration with: europalia georgia

Watch the ancient city of Ani coming back to life in the film 'The Silence of Ani’ by Francis Alÿs! In the exhibition 'The Nature of the Game', Francis Alÿs confronts his famous selection of children's games with the film installation 'The Silence of Ani', in which children play hide-and-seek in the ruins of Ani, an ancient Armenian city on the edge of present-day Turkey. Now lying in ruins but once called “the city of a thousand-and-one churches”, Ani rivaled in beauty with cities like Constantinople and Jerusalem. Using bird calls, the children create the illusion that the city is coming back to life. The Silence of Ani, Francis Alÿs, Turkish-Armenian border, 2015; 13:21 min In collaboration with Antonio Fernández Ros, Julien Devaux, Félix Blume, and the teens of Kars. @francis_alys_official @juliendevaux @felixblume

Memories of a haunted premiere 🔦 Looking back at James Richards and Billy Bultheel performing Workers in Song at WIELS with some photos by Tine Declerck @dc.tine.brxl Following the performance, the composition Snows of Venice by Billy Bultheel and the video work Alms for the Birds by James Richards are brought together, expanding Workers in Song as an installation with props, costumes, and a piano, abandoned in the absence of the performers. Performance and exhibition written, directed and produced by @billyjohnbultheel and James Richards Performance Voice, piano Alexey Kokhanov @alkokhanov Flute Adam Sinclaire @adamsinclaire Violin Clara Levy @claralev.y Viola Julie Michael @julie.c.mich Violoncello Hanna Kölbel Sound engineer Christophe Albertijn Technical assistance Perikles Lazarou Styling wang consulting @wang_consulting_ Curatorial Intern Lisa Longworth @lilo______________ Additional works by Warren Sonbert, Wendy Appel, Ian White, Rae Armantrout, Liesl Lindeque Exhibition Filmed appearances by Sebastian de la Cour (bariton) and Sara Neido @saraneidorf (percussion) DOP Tom Rosenberg 2nd Camera Milan Daemgen @milan_daemgen Sound Recordist Simone Antonioni @simone.antonioni Key Grip Braden Harris Production Assistants Lea Hopp @hopp.la and Sinaida Michalskaja @michalskaja Film Locations @bplus.xyz and @anorakanorak Production Manager Johanna Markert @johannamarkert Curator Helena Kritis @helenakritis Co-commissioned by Wiels Contemporary Art Center, Batalha Centro de Cinema, Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, KW Institute for Contemporary Art With the support of Vlaamse Gemeenschap Projectsubsidies, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi – Berlin @isabellabortolozzi, Kemmler Foundation @kemmlerfoundation #WIELS #BillyBultheel #JamesRichards #Performance #Exhibition

Join us this Thursday for the first screening of 'A State in a State' by Tekla Aslanishvili, followed by a conversation between curator Patricia Couvet and the artist about the film and the geopolitical context it addresses. Register via the link in bio. At the intersection of infrastructural design, history and geopolitics, Tekla Aslanishvili’s new film examines railways as the technical materialization of the fragile political borders that have reemerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This screening marks an ongoing series of collaborations between the Han Nefkens Fondation and WIELS, bringing together their resources and expertise to support and present ambitious audio-visual work from around the world. Opening on 21.09 I 18:00-20:00 Film screening from 22.09 to 29.10 I 11:00-18:00 (starts every hour) WIELS Auditorium Free entrance 📷 Courtesy of @hannefkensfoundation and the artist

'I focus on transit, energy and extractive infrastructures and analyse them through the lens of design and politics' Berlin-Tbilisi-based Georgian artist and filmmaker @tekelson will show her experimental documentary 'A State in a State' at @wiels_brussels from 21 September. Learn more about the mechanisms and steps that led her to it on our website 🔗 Interview by @brunamac_, photos by @kasiazacharko 💜