Francis Alÿs films children’s games in refugee camps in northern Iraq

“The artist Francis Alÿs is exploring the idea of a film about children playing in the refugee camps he visited in northern Iraq at the end of February. The Belgian-born, Mexico City-based artist was on his first research trip to the region, where he filmed and took photographs of children playing games such as marbles and hopscotch in Camp Kabarto and Camp Shariya.

Kabarto is home to 5,000 families, mainly from the Yazidi sect, who were forced to flee when Islamic State attacked Sinjar in 2014. It is estimated that 3,300 Yazidi families (17,000 people) from Sinjar are living in Camp Shariya.

The Baghdad-based Ruya Foundation invited Alÿs to visit Iraq to explore the possibility of creating a work about the refugee camps as part of Creativity for Survival, a wider project and series of workshops run by the foundation in response to the humanitarian crisis. Before visiting the camps, Alÿs hosted a workshop with artists and art students in Baghdad.”