Confronted by the cultural and physical landscape of Mexico City, Francis Alÿs literally began walking it, and these contemplative walks and poetic wanderings are his strategy to explore these complexities. An iconic motif for the artist, the Zócalo, Mexico City’s historic main square, was built over what was once the heart of the Aztec capital by the Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés to symbolize his triumph over the indigenous people. The Zócalo has since become a stage for demonstrations of power and public expression. Given the historical importance of this shared space, it is no surprise that the artist used this site as a backdrop for many of his most celebrated early works, such as Cuentos Patrióticos (Patriotic Tales) (1997), Zócalo (1999), and Sunpath, Mexico City (1999).
Alÿs realized that his work is a product of the interaction between reality and its record. This interaction is exemplified in the present lot, Sunpath, Mexico City (1999), an exceptional installation and the only intact edition of the complete 24 photographs composing the project, juxtaposed with sunpath diagrams. In each photograph, a shadow is cast from the towering central flagpole that displays the Mexican national flag, with people gathering in the shadow. Recalling a sundial, Sunpath, Mexico City meticulously documents the hustle and bustle of any normal day, between eleven o’clock in the morning and six o’clock in the afternoon, when the square is at its busiest. Yet bystanders are not simply taking refuge from the sun, but also 'provoking a sculptural situation, through social encounter' (Francis Alÿs and Cuauhtémoc Medina, eds., Francis Alÿs: a story of deception, exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2010, p. 100), indirectly informing us about the different times of day. Likewise, and 'within this constant phenomenon of movement you also have moments of complete freeze' (Matthew Crookes, ed., Artspace, New Zealand, 2008, p. 11) much like movies in the 1940s and 1950s. Ultimately, Sunpath, Mexico City, attests to the conceptual complexity that Francis Alÿs produces, evincing dialogues centered on acute observation, urban explorations and engagement with quotidian life.