In 1993, Belgian performative artist Francis Alÿs initiated an engagement with painting, identifying it as the Sign-Painters Project. The present triptych Cityscapes, 1993, forms part of this innovative approach to painting which developed throughout the subsequent five years. Constructing a complex structure of artistic production, Alÿs would initially illustrate figurative still images based on previous or future artistic interventions in Mexico City, the artist then hired local sign painters to create enlarged copies of his designs.
Sign painters, or rotulistas, are commercial artists employed to hand paint on building façades or billboards for advertisement purposes. Working with Juan Garcia and Emilio Rivera, the result of this collaboration is well-illustrated in the present triptych. Alÿs requested his collaborators to create an enlarged copy but additionally encouraged an element of artistic freedom. As Cuauhtémoc Medina explains, ‘he saw the rotulistas working in the manner of an ancient scuola, sharing a common iconography and a set of social codes, as well as a ‘play of translations’ that transmitted ‘an idea from one person to another' (exh. cat. Francis Alÿs: A Story of Deception, Tate Modern, London & traveling, 2010, p. 59). Maintaining the thematic thread of a cityscape, it is clear that the three components of the present work differ greatly in design and execution.
Whilst known for his performative interventions, Alÿs has justified his recourse to painting stating that the medium is ‘the shortest way – or the only way – to translate certain scenarios or situations that cannot be said, that cannot be filmed or performed. It is about entering a situation that could not exist elsewhere, only on the paper or canvas. They are images, and I want for them to live as such’ (Francis Alÿs in conversation with Russell Ferguson, ‘Interview’, Francis Alÿs, London, 2007, p. 26).