We offer our members the current members’ edition from January to December of each calendar year. Orders beyond this period are unfortunately not possible. The dispatch takes place exclusively by post after receipt of the production costs rate.
Francis Alÿs: Untitled, 2018
Vereinsgabe 2025
Offset print on Olin Regular paper 300 g/m²
30,7 x 23 cm
Label with e-signature on the back
available until December 14, 2025
Dear member,
It is with great pleasure that we are able to present the Kunstverein’s member’s edition for 2025, which is a work by the internationally known artist Francis Alÿs.
The print shows a kneeling female figure, bent slightly forward and with her back to us. Her black hair is parted at the nape, one part of which hangs down her right side to the ground, where it curls about her body in an infinite loop. Initially her hair is black, but it quickly separates out into abstract lines. These lines encircle the figure as if orbiting her; although they could also be seen as the terraces of a stepped mound, on whose summit the figure is kneeling. The image appears surreal, but also conveys a sense of profound sadness. The child in it is completely encircled. Have the coils emanating from her hair been created by some alien power, or is this a strength that, tornado-like, lies immanent within the child itself? Is this a game which is about making use of nothing more than what is to hand?
The work is part of a series entitled Salam Tristesse, which the artist made in Iraq between 2016 and 2020. The title is inspired by Francoise Sagan’s book Bonjour Tristesse. As part of this project, Alÿs stayed in Yazidi refugee camps located near the Islamic State Jihadi group. In so doing, he deliberately placed himself in a situation of extreme insecurity, where, in order to avoid becoming a mere spectator, he was forced to invent new artistic practices. While in Iraq, Alÿs was particularly interested in the games children played in the refugee camps, but he also reflected on the role of the ‘war artist’.
Childhood and children’s games appear repeatedly in his work. While he was himself a child, Alÿs had been fascinated by Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Children’s Games of 1560, which shows a myriad of children playing a great variety of games. In 1999 he began a series of works entitled Children’s Games, which continues till today. It documents children playing games from fifteen different countries, primarily by means of video, but also in sketches and studies on paper, as well as small format paintings. What has astonished him most is the universal nature of games, which is so striking as to suggest the existence of a collective unconscious.
Born in Antwerp in 1959, Francis Alÿs’s work includes interventions, drawings, paintings, films and photographs. While his studio is in Mexico, many of his works derive from countless trips to North Africa, South America and the Middle East.
Trained as an architect and urbanist, Alÿs moved to Mexico in 1986 to work with local NGOs. He has worked as a visual artist since 1990.
Alÿs has exhibited at the Serralves Foundation/Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, in 2024; at the Barbican Centre in London, also in 2024; at WIELS, Brussels, in 2023; at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, also in 2023; at the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, in 2021–22; at the Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts, Hong Kong, and the Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, in 2018; at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, also in 2018; at Documenta (13), in Kassel and Kabul; at the Secession, Vienna, in 2016–17; at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, in 2013; at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2011; at Tate Modern, London, in 2010; at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, in 2005; at the Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, in 2003; and at the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, in 1997.
He is the recipient of numerous awards, among them the Wolfgang-Hahn-Preis, which he received in 2023 from the Museum Ludwig in Cologne.
Order modalities
The member’s edition is reserved exclusively for members of the Kölnischer Kunstverein.
The member’s edition will be sent to you by mail.
The order is only possible via the form on our website.
Order period: January 6 until December 14, 2025.
Production costs rate: 15,-€ per member’s edition (plus 7,-€ shipping fee / Shipping costs for other EU countries are 15,- €).
Family members can have the member’s edition sent to them collectively. The shipping fee (6,-€) then only has to be paid once. Please note this in the Comments field.
