This twelve-hour video documents in real time the activity in Mexico City's Plaza de la Constitución, known as the Zócalo, a site of frequent civic demonstrations and protests. The video begins at dawn with the raising of the flag on the Zócalo's prominent central flagpole, surveys the sweeping movements of the pole's shadow and the patterns of movement of people within the massive plaza, and concludes at dusk, when the flag is brought back down. Within the context of Audubon Terrace's historic Beaux-Arts architecture and its role as a cultural and educational hub, this screening juxtaposes two diverging models of open urban spaces and their social uses.
Francis Alÿs was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1959. He studied architecture at the Institut d'Architecture de Tournai, Belgium, and the Istituto di Architettura di Venezia, Italy. He began to work as an artist in 1990 after moving to Mexico City and had his first one-person exhibition there in 1991. Major exhibitions of his work have been presented at such venues as Art Angel, London (2005); Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany, and touring (2004); and the Musée d'art contemporain, Avignon, France (2004). He participated in the Venice Biennial in 2007 and 2001 and the Carnegie International in 2004. Francis Alÿs, Fabiola (September 20, 2007-April 6, 2008) was the inaugural exhibition presented by Dia at the Hispanic Society. Alÿs lives and works in Mexico City.