Zocalo

In this 12-hour video documentary, we follow the shadow of a flagpole across a square in Mexico City in a pan of 3 degrees an hour. The visual dynamics of the eighteenth-century paintings by Francesco Guardi, that hang in the room as a reference to a normal gallery arrangement, seem to have more motion than the tranquil images by Alÿs, who was originally trained as an architect. Francis Alÿs (1959) trained as an architect and practised in Mexico from 1987. Moved gradually into art-making full-time and has exhibited his work widely in solo and group exhibitions, latter include Stimuli (Witte de With, Rotterdam 2000) and the Venice Biennale 1999. He is known internationally for his collaborative work and for his performance/walking projects. He has been making paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations and videos. In 2000, the Galerie d’Art de l’Université de Quebec, Montreal presented his one-person show ‘The Last Clown’.