Known for his in-depth projects in a wide range of media, including documentary film, painting, photography, performance and video. Through his practice, Alÿs consistently directs his distinct poetic and imaginative sensibility toward anthropological and geopolitical concerns centered around observations of, and engagements with, everyday life. The artist himself has described his work as “a sort of discursive argument composed of episodes, metaphors, or parables”.
Alÿs originally trained as an architect. He moved to Mexico City in 1986, where he continues to live and work, and it was the confrontation with issues of urbanization and social unrest in his new country of adoption that inspired his decision to become a visual artist.
Francis Alÿs found, in the famous Plaza Zocalo (Plaza de la Constitucion) in Mexico City, the perfect theater-like stage showing the routine performance of people and their relation to the political power symbolized by the impressive Mexican flag hanging on top of this square. The irony that Alÿs wants to highlight is that people are not standing to praise their flag and national symbol but rather to naturally find a shelter from the strong sunlight.
Taking images over several days, the artist uses time as a witness and as a way to reflect over the symbols of power and the relationship between humans and their surrounding architecture. On the right of each image is the date and light formula determining the length of the shadow during that specific day. As a celebrated contemporary artist Francis Alÿs combines documentary and social photographs with text and performance-like art in this conceptual work.
