In his long-running Children’s Games series, the Belgian-born, Mexico-based artist Francis Alÿs chronicles the often quite simple games, invented and inherited, that children around the world play to bond, entertain, burn off energy and simply pass the time. In this instalment shot near the city of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo, four young boys find fun in a rather unlikely place – the massive slag heap of a cobalt mine used to extract lithium for batteries.
With their colourful clothing and playful singing striking a stark contrast with the drab setting, the boys push a tyre uphill until, upon reaching high-enough ground, one of them climbs inside plunges down the slope. For his part, Alÿs and his team chronicle this scene without commentary, leaving the viewer to draw their own conclusions about its meaning. Is this an exhilarating ode to children’s ability to find fun, even in the most unlikely places? Or a quiet commentary on how the worldwide battery market leaves behind those who toil to mine them? Or perhaps both?