Rockbund Art Museum 上海外滩美术馆

One Hundred Years of Solitude has the potential to provide a lens into Francis Alÿs’s works, as the book by the Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez starts with an ice cube and ends with a hurricane, both natural elements that also appear in the artist’s creations. Francis’ projects, for example, involve an ice cube that was depleted in 9 hours and coiled hair that was spread out and inexplicitly echoed a tornado. Just like the goldfish made and melted over and over again and the shroud sewn in daytime and unsewn at night in the novel, these artworks all come down to one theme – la dépense (consumption) or loop, as implied by the stories of Sisyphus, Ocnos or Penelope.

The “Walk & Talk” series is designed to indulge audience with diversified perspectives and opportunities for appreciating exhibited artworks, which are provided by scholars, artists, critics, curators or professional journalists from their personal and subject-matter points of view. At this session, Fan Ye, a PhD in literature, is invited to present his view on the exhibition Francis Alÿs: la dépense.

把《百年孤独》作为走近弗朗西斯·埃利斯的一个平行文本是可能的：毕竟那是一本以冰块起始，以飓风结束的小说，而这两个哥伦比亚小说家笔下的元素都出现在艺术家弗朗西斯·埃利斯的创作中。无论是九个小时后终究消耗不见的冰块，还是与龙卷风隐隐呼应、盘起又散开的头发， 与打造又熔化的小金鱼、白天缝好夜里拆开的裹尸衣一样，都可以被阐释为同一个主题：西西弗斯或奥克诺斯或珀涅罗珀，消耗或回环。

“游读”系列旨在通过邀请跨学科的学者、艺术家、评论家、策展人或者专业媒体人，从个人及不同专业的视角，给观众提供更多面向及可能性进入展览语境和艺术家的创作。本次游读活动邀请文学博士范晔带大家走进《弗朗西斯·埃利斯：消耗》。