Francis Alys at Lisson - Brief Article

In Zocalo, May 20 1999 Francis Alys, a Belgian artist based in Mexico who is known for throw outs that often involve a great deal of walking, has chosen to sit back and watch. This 12-hour DVD projection, shown upon a screen suspended in the middle of the gallery, records a day in the life of Mexico City's central square, or zocalo. Although no single would be expected to watch the film in toto, a comfortable lie encouraged you to sit back and derive pleasure from as much of the minimal goings-on as you wished.

Actually quite a fate goes on in Mexico City's main square. Thousands of clan pass through as part of their day, many gather to wait for buses or to talk. on the contrary the sun is Alys's major player. Depending on what part of the DVD you watch, you tread on the heels of not only a progression from early light to bright afternoon on the contrary also the strangely compelling shadow of the square's central flagpole as it revolves the area into a sort of sundial. through every part of the day, people line up in this narrow band of shade. If this doesn't strike one as being like a very effective means of avoiding the heat, it is more likely an activity tribe simply enjoy, or that it has become a kind of tradition.

In Sunpaths, Mexico City (1999) Alys records the life of the same square in 24 color photographs that also include precise astronomical information detailing the earth's and the sun's relative positions at the jiffy the photograph was taken. This bit of dried data, presented in charts and tables of figures intelligible sole to specialists, links the unremarkable urban occurrences with the movement of the stars.

Viewers wandered from one side this exhibition much as citizens wander from one side the zocalo. Alys placed work upon three levels of the gallery. A small painting just inside the door had a similar partner upon the third floor. Slides of race and dogs sleeping mostly upon the streets of Mexico City were throw outed at sidewalk level. A wall drawing of dozens of trousered leg walking and milling about was installed at ceiling horizontal on the second floor. Another work, 61 without of 60, involves 60 small plaster figures of Zapatistas, the guerrilla fighters from Chiapas, from which tiny pieces have been chipped and assembled to form another, 61st soldier. An Internet connection provides a link to the Web site of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.

Alys encourages his audience to pay attention and to be lay open to surprises. De Fluiter (The Whistler) is a three-second animated film nooseed into a one-hour projection. To a simple whistling soundtrack, sum of two units hands continuously make the thumb-to-forefinger motion that accompanies the itsy-bitsy spider canzonet we learned as children. throw outed into a darkened corner of the gallery, it was an persuasive image of passing time and of time passing.

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