Children's Game #39: Parol
video, 8'02'' / 2023
Courtesy of
In collaboration with
Photo © Andrei Stseburaka, courtesy of the YermilovCentre 
Photo © Oleksandr Osipov, courtesy of the YermilovCentre 
Photo © Oleksandr Osipov, courtesy of the YermilovCentre 
Photo © Oleksandr Osipov, courtesy of the YermilovCentre
For over four decades of artistic practice, Francis Alÿs has been constantly interested in exploring art as a vehicle for witnessing social and political change. Trained as an architect and urbanist in Belgium and Italy, Alÿs moved to Mexico City in 1986, where the rapidly shifting urban context and social dynamics of the late 1980s inspired him to become a visual artist. Children's Game #39: Parol belongs to his ongoing project Children's Games, which the artist started in 1999 and has since covered more than 15 countries. In this project continually referencing Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Children's Games (1560), Alÿs explores the game and its potential to overcome constraints imposed by unstable contexts inflicted by wars, colonialism, and different forms of oppression.
In order to film Parol, Francis Alÿs came to the region of Kharkiv in May 2023. In a video, three boys dressed in military uniforms are as if trying on the roles of the adults at the checkpoint, securing their land and families. Passionate about the game, the kids are checking the cars for Russian spies using a check word, Palyanytsia, which means bread in Ukrainian and cannot be properly pronounced by Russians. Most of the adults enthusiastically get involved in the game, demonstrating excitement and immediacy. Yet, the video reflects on the deception of our safety: kids can't really check the cars, and the password is conditional. By creating a simulacrum of the real and turning the dramatic circumstances around them into a more fictional, ludic world, the act of playing helps those brave boys coping with the traumatic experiences of war. Yet, this is also an action to reassure ourselves that safety is under control. The video is very human; there is much laughter and love-basic values that ensure the continuation of life and which become especially demanded in a war situation when the foundation seems to crumble. But in its rootstock, a new foundation of resistance is being born through children matured beyond their age.
The video contains subtle, quite meditative pictorial observations, whereas an unnoticed sunset becomes a backdrop for the game to continue. As the game manifests a possibility for society to return to normal functioning, which is one of the principles of safety.