Children take centre stage in this monumental exhibition, which centres on Children’s Games, a series of thirty video projections by Francis Alÿs capturing children at play around the world. For over two decades, Alÿs has travelled to diverse locations, including Congo, Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Alaska, and Cuba, to film children deeply engaged in outdoor play, often using found materials. Some of the games are rooted in long-standing traditions, while others have been spontaneously created by the children in response to their immediate environment.

Alÿs chose to turn the largest room of the exhibition, known as the “high hall”, over to the children of Cologne. Fifty schoolchildren between eight and thirteen, like the children in the films, will curate a children’s museum and a playing navigation in this space.

In the exhibition, the artist will present a new film in his Children’s Games series that was made exclusively with local children, driving home the connection between Alÿs’s project and the children’s museum: Kids Take Over.

Kids Take Over is curated by Rita Kersting and Santi Grunewald. It was previously on view at the Fundação Serralves, Portugal and the Barbican Centre, London. This incredible show will run until 3 August 2025.