Still from SOMETIMES DOING SOMETHING POETIC CAN BECOME POLITICAL AND SOMETIMES DOING SOMETHING POLITICAL CAN BECOME POETIC
2005
Paradox of Praxis 1
1997
VW Beetle (Wolfsburg [D] 1938 - Puebla [MEX] 2003)
Sleepers, 2001
Courtesy of the artist and Lisson Gallery, London
Francis Alÿs
Walking Distance from the Studio
For the artist Francis Alÿs, born in Belgium in 1959 and now living in Mexico City, it is the ephemeral, fleeting and transient phenomena of life on which he founds his artistic work. Originally trained as an architect, his works comprise predominantly of video pieces, slide shows, drawings and paintings. He develops these from situations he encounters on his walks through the streets of Mexico City. His attention is caught, for instance, by a plastic bag wafting through the air or by homeless people asleep; elsewhere he pushes a block of ice through the sweltering streets until it has evaporated, or with his camera he follows the shifting shadow of the flagpole in the middle of the Plaza Major. This approach situates the artist in the tradition of both the Situationists and the Fluxus movement. As its theme, the exhibition in Wolfsburg examines what in his immediate surroundings, in the public and social space of Mexico City moves him.
